It comes as the Public Utility Commission of Texas is scheduled to vote Friday morning on whether the utility's plan can go forward.

The City Council by a 7-0 vote Monday approved a resolution stating that the city continues to oppose the company’s plan because of the “anticipated high cost that would be borne by El Paso ratepayers” for the Newman Unit 6 generator and that it will “not likely be needed by 2023,” when the company hopes to have it in operation.

The city in filings with the PUC has been fighting for months against the utility's application to add the 228-megawatt generator to the utility's largest power plant, located in a mostly undeveloped area at Stan Roberts Sr. Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

The company also needs to get approval from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission because it also serves customers in the Las Cruces area.

The Las Cruces city government, the New Mexico attorney general and environmental groups in El Paso and New Mexico also oppose the utility’s plan.

Company officials have said the new generating unit is needed to replace three, inefficient, 60-year-old generating units, including two at the Newman plant, and to meet future peak electric demand.

That position has not changed, said George De La Torre, a company spokesman.

City Attorney Karla Nieman in a statement said, “During this time of economic uncertainty when ratepayers are experiencing financial hardship, it is neither prudent nor necessary for El Paso Electric to move forward” with the new unit.

Ratepayers to pay Newman 6 costs

Utility officials estimate Newman 6 would require an additional $18.6 million in rate revenues in Texas and $4.6 million in New Mexico for first-year operations. That translates to an average $1.45 per month bill increase for El Paso-area residential customers, and an average $1.43 in Las Cruces.

Additional Newman 6 costs could be shifted to El Paso ratepayers because a new environmental law in New Mexico requires the utility to supply 100% of its power to its New Mexico customers from carbon-free sources by 2045, lawyers for the city have argued in PUC filings.

Ratepayers won't have to pay costs tied to Newman 6 until it goes into operation, now projected in 2023. That's likely to be done for several years with a temporary surcharge to electric bills after the unit begins operating, but before a cost review is done in a future rate case with the PUC, lawyers for the city noted in a recent PUC filing.

City officials want utility to extend life of old generators

El Paso officials want the utility to hold off on the Newman project until more is known about how the pandemic will affect its power needs. Meanwhile, the utility should use the three, old generators for a longer period and buy more power from outside sources, according to the city's filings.

El Paso Electric officials have said in PUC filings that the city's proposal "can only lead to a decrease in (electric system) reliability and an increase in costs to customers."

In its most recent filing, EPE lawyers concluded: "EPE's customers deserve the thorough and meticulous planning that EPE offers, not CEP's (city of El Paso's) ill-advised thought experiment."

A Texas administrative law judge, who conducted a one-day hearing in the PUC case in June, the PUC staff and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission staff have recommended the utility's plan be approved.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.