Home Care In Los Alamos, NM

When the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative (KCEC) was granted a federal award to build a hydrogen microgrid — the first of its kind in the nation — the small Northern New Mexico utility won widespread praise.

Awarded in January, the funds will help the electrical co-op serve its 30,000 customers around Questa, New Mexico, with reliable energy. Already, KCEC is 100% solar-powered, but the introduction of a hydrogen fuel-cell plant and an advanced microgrid battery storage system now puts the small utility at the technological forefront of energy production.

What many people may not know is the crucial role Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) played in this project, particularly the Partnerships and Pipeline Office (PPO) and the Applied Energy Program Office (SPO-AE).

“We came up with a project that we think is a cutting-edge, emerging technology,” said Luis Reyes, the chief executive officer and general manager at KCEC. “Los Alamos was there on day one, and they really helped us get over the finish line.”

Reyes knew Los Alamos could help because the utility had worked on projects with the Lab before, such as wildfire mitigation planning. With the support of the board and KCEC customers, Reyes and his team applied for the Communities Local Energy Action Program, a technical-assistance program run by the Department of Energy that partners utilities with national laboratory experts.

“We have a lot of specialists in the hydrogen field,” said Duncan McBranch, senior director for Partnerships and Pipeline Office. “So really, what we could do best to help KCEC was to connect them with these experts.”

“The Laboratory has scientific resources that can be leveraged to assist our regional stakeholders,” said Melissa Fox, Applied Energy Program Office director. “Our partnership with Kit Carson is a great example of how we make those resources accessible to local project leaders.”

Meeting of the minds

PPO and SPO-AE introduced KCEC to scientists in the Lab’s fuel-cell program, who have worked for decades to advance hydrogen fuel-cell technology. This led to a conversation with the Lab’s hydrogen fuel-cell experts, who spoke to KCEC’s leadership about advancements in electrolyzer and microgrid technology.

“We really wanted to know about all the latest capabilities available,” Reyes said, “and that helped us figure out what would be best for our needs.”

Water was quickly identified as a problem. Hydrogen power plants use a lot of water because of the electrolysis process that splits H2O into its base elements, which are then used to generate electricity — and in Northern New Mexico water is an important, scarce resource.

Fortunately, KCEC had an idea. In 2014, the Chevron molybdenum mine closed and was declared a Department of Energy (DOE) superfund site. Part of the cleanup involves pumping contaminated water through a treatment facility. That same water, KCEC believed, could now be used to create more energy. After consulting Lab experts, KCEC solved the problem with a plan to pump that treated water to the planned hydrogen facility.

Lab expertise and community support

As a co-op — meaning customer-owned — KCEC needed the community’s approval before the utility could move forward. So, they held a series of town hall meetings, and McBranch was there at each conversation.

“They’re in our backyard, so of course the Lab should show up,” McBranch said. “Besides, this was a really exciting project.”

At the community meetings, locals were excited about the prospect of a 104-megawatt hydrogen facility that could provide energy for roughly 25,000 homes. They also were excited that the project would create 350 jobs. In the end, the community overwhelmingly approved of the plan.

Getting over the finish line

Once KCEC submitted the proposal package, there were a few months of nail biting as they waited to hear back. In January they were, of course, overjoyed to learn that they had won.

“We have some really talented and positive people here at the co-op,” Reyes said. “But this was a big project, and the Lab helped us validate a lot of things we thought might work. Having that resource, locally, was huge.”

Work on the battery storage system is scheduled to start in June and should be finished by summer 2026. The hydrogen facility is expected to be completed by 2028. When it is up and running, not only will residents receive all their power from these sources; the relatively small co-op will have put New Mexico utilities on the map, proving that such projects are possible even for small, rural towns across the nation.

A sinkhole that appeared today at the intersection of Rover Boulevard and NM-4 in White Rock. Courtesy photo

A second photo of the sinkhole that appeared Wednesday in an area of NM-4 that had recently been repaved. Courtesy photo

BY MAIRE O’NEILLlosalamosreporter.com

Motorists in White Rock were taken by surprise Wednesday when they discovered the hard way that a sinkhole had appeared by the NM-4/Rover Boulevard intersection. Community members told the Reporter that Department of Public Utilities personnel responded quickly and placed red traffic cones around the hole. Photos show that at least one white vehicle may have been damaged. The Department of Transportation were also on the scene. Several vehicles reportedly drove across the sinkhole, which fortunately was not very deep.

A news release from Los Alamos County says the hole is under the right turning lane for eastbound traffic on NM-4, slightly west of the intersection.

“Once a repair operation has begun, it is not expected to close the non-turning eastbound lane of traffic, however drivers are asked to pass the area patiently and cautiously. As of 2 p.m., no estimate for repair time has been determined”.

Several years ago, my wife Kathy and my son Dan worked for Carol and Tex Felts at Los Alamos Music. Like many small businesses they provided multiple services to the community. They gave music lessons. They sold new and used instruments. They did “rent-to-own” instruments for beginners. They repaired instruments. However, the real money-maker for that business was that Tex tuned pianos.

For many years, Tex had a contract with the county to tune its pianos. One year he put in his usual bid, and the county told him that they had awarded the contract to some outfit from Santa Fe. They had underbid him by one dollar. One stinking dollar.

A few months later, Tex got a call from the county asking him if he would mind tuning a piano for them. Apparently, a world-class pianist was scheduled to give a concert in Los Alamos and the piano was out of tune. Tex reminded them that they had already paid someone to tune that piano and the government shouldn’t be paying twice for the same service. They told Tex that the concert was in a few hours and their piano tuning outfit in Santa Fe couldn’t shake someone loose to do the job. Tex told the county that they were putting him in an awkward position in that it would look like he was trying to horn in on his competitor’s contract. Tex didn’t tune the piano and the citizens of Los Alamos got to hear a world-class pianist give a concert on an out of tune piano. All for one stinking dollar.

The reason I am telling this story is that the county can be a little tone deaf when it comes to dealing with local businesses. Recently the county changed their electricity billing algorithm so that customers with solar installations are only reimbursed at the wholesale rate and not the retail rate. I understand (and for the most part I agree with) the county’s rationale that their non-solar customers were effectively subsidizing their solar ones. I expected the rate change to happen so it didn’t surprise me much. However, it knocked the snot out of the local businesses who were installing solar.

Now, the DPU board is considering buying into a solar array from Farmington. My suggestion is that they consider shopping local for their solar power. There is plenty of space to produce our own power here in Los Alamos, either on the rooftops of county buildings or through ground-based solar arrays (which is probably cheaper). They could contract to these people who have been hurt by the DPU billing policies. That way, we would also keep local solar expertise to service and maintain these installations. And, people’s utility bill revenues would stay in the county.

I believe that the solar array/transmission line model which the DPU board is suggesting is a technology that is becoming obsolete. The reason is because the transmission lines can no longer deliver reliable power. PNM has already shut off power to customers in Southeastern NM and Raton due to wind events. They are scared of starting fires, and rightfully so. PGE in California went bankrupt over the fires they started, and PNM has a fiduciary responsibility to their investors and the public not to let that happen here. Earlier this year, they cut Los Alamos back from two trunk lines to one trunk line and threatened to cut our power off altogether if that line had problems. I think this situation is likely to get worse.

One major advantage of local solar over imported solar is that you don’t have the transmission line power issue. Since you consume the power where you produce it, you don’t need long distance power lines. If the DPU and the solar people can cooperate on this, it would be to everyone’s benefit.