Electricity | Natural Gas | Water | Wastewater | Telecommunications

Electricity

Provider:  Public Service Company of New Mexico – www.pnm.com

The Public Service Company of New Mexico, an investor-owned utility, provides both electricity and natural gas to commercial and industrial customers in the Albuquerque metro area.  New Mexico has an abundant supply of electricity from coal-burning plants (primary), natural gas, nuclear, and petroleum sources. 

PNM also is able to maintain an excellent reliability record.  Over the past ten years, they have maintained an average reliability rating of 99.986%. PNM is recognized by Edison Electric Institute as one of the most reliable electric service providers in the nation.

Electric Rates per kWh

• Residential:    8.04 cents
• Commercial:   7.02 cents
• Industrial:      4.73 cents

Natural Gas

Provider:  New Mexico Gas Company – www.nmgco.com/

New Mexico is the second largest gas producer in the United States. Albuquerque has an abundance of natural gas at costs among the lowest in the nation.  NM Gas Company also offers large gas users the option of purchasing gas from a third party and transporting it over NM Gas Company lines. 

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Water

Historically, groundwater pumped from an underground aquifer has been the City's only source of water supply. However, the City of Albuquerque has taken a number of steps in the past few years to ensure an adequate, safe, and guaranteed supply of water for residential, commercial, and industrial uses well into the future.

Beginning in 2007, Albuquerque's water will be supplied by the San Jaun-Chama Water Project which will provide up to 70% of the metro area's future water. Under the Upper Colorado River Compact, New Mexico annually receives water from the Upper Colorado River’s basin for consumptive use. San Jaun-Chama water diverted from the river will be taken to a state of the art treatment plant, resulting in adequate supply of purified water to be delivered to Albuquerque area homes and businesses.

The San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project is one of six capital projects included in the overall Albuquerque Metropolitan Area Water Resources Management Strategy aimed at protecting and ensuring the city's water supply.

Wastewater
The City of Albuquerque’s Wastewater Utility Division is responsible for maintaining Albuquerque's wastewater collection system and wastewater reclamation plant. The Division serves all the Albuquerque area homes, businesses and institutions that are connected to the sewer system. The Wastewater Utility Division serves an area that includes virtually all homes, schools, and businesses within the Albuquerque city limits, as well as the Village of Tijeras, Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia Heights, and other residential areas in Bernalillo County. In all, we serve about 500,000 people, 100 major industries and 12,000 commercial customers.

The sewers carry it to the Southside Water Reclamation Plant. The Southside Plant receives and reclaims about 60 million gallons of wastewater daily. Residential customers produce about 80 percent of this wastewater. The Plant recycles about 200 million gallons of water each year, which is used for cleaning and irrigation at the Plant.

Major area industries participate in programs that monitor–and in some cases pre-treat–their wastewater. The Industrial Pretreatment Program (IPP) has recently entered into the Project XL program along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Division also operates a Pollution Prevention or "P2" program open to all businesses. The P2 program concentrates on helping small and medium-sized businesses reduce the amount of waste they produce.

System Capacity & Usage

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Telecommunications
Albuquerque benefits from telecommunications services provided by Qwest, Time Warner Telecom, and Comcast.  Qwest employs digital technology throughout most of its Albuquerque facilities with the local central office a 5ESS Digital Switch; Time Warner, and Xspedius are 100% digitally switched. Contacts for these fiber providers are:

Long distance carriers with a significant presence in the city include AT&T, LDDS Worldcom, NTS Communications, Qwest, Sprint, and Valu-Line Long Distance.  All long distance carriers have T1 capability.

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