Xcel Energy is seeking approval of its 2014 RPS report and its 2016 RPS plan. Xcel is required to supply 15% of its retail sales in New Mexico from renewables in 2016 and 2017. However, it has requested approval not to acquire additional renewables in 2016 or 2017, and to satisfy requirements for SRECs with excess wind RECs. While Xcel anticipates that it can comply with the overall RPS in 2016 and 2017, it asserted that its existing renewables costs exceed the “reasonable cost threshold” (RCT), which is intended to limit the bill impacts of the state’s RPS.

The RPS also imposes resource diversity requirements within the renewable portfolio that Xcel says it will not meet. According to Xcel’s testimony, exceeding the RCT threshold means that Xcel does not need to seek a waiver from meeting those diversity requirements. It has proposed to retire excess wind RECs in lieu of a portion of solar and DG RECs that it does not have.

Xcel is also proposing to modify its DG tariffs, including its small, medium, large, and 3rd-party-owned solar DG tariffs.