LOCAL COLUMN
OPINION: New Mexico shouldn鈥檛 leave rural communities behind on grid modernization
New Mexico is at risk of making an avoidable mistake 鈥� one that could leave rural and tribal communities behind just as the rest of the country moves forward on clean energy, grid modernization and resilience.
The Public Regulation Commission is currently considering a proposed rule governing how new energy technologies connect to rural electric cooperative systems. While technical in nature, the rule could have real consequences for energy access, affordability and reliability across rural New Mexico.
At the center of the issue is a provision that would exclude 鈥渧ehicle-to-grid鈥� (V2G) technology from the definition of distributed energy resources. The impact is straightforward: It would prevent this emerging technology from being deployed in rural cooperative territories, even though it remains available elsewhere in the state.
V2G allows electric vehicles to function as mobile batteries. During outages, they can provide backup power to homes, schools and hospitals. During peak demand, they can send electricity back to the grid, helping reduce costs. Paired with renewable energy, they can support a more flexible and resilient electric system.
These capabilities are already being deployed in states like California, Illinois and Maryland. At the federal level, regulators have moved to integrate these technologies 鈥� not exclude them.
The impact of the proposed rule goes beyond V2G. It would also reduce the threshold for streamlined approval of energy projects from 5 megawatts to 1 megawatt, effectively slowing or blocking community-scale battery storage projects already being developed in rural New Mexico. These projects are designed to improve reliability, lower costs and provide backup power for entire communities. Forcing them into lengthy and expensive study processes could delay or deter investments that rural areas need today.
Even more concerning, the proposal does not simply clarify existing policy 鈥� it rolls it back. Today, rural electric cooperatives are covered under the same interconnection framework as investor-owned utilities, a framework that allows these technologies to connect to the grid.
The new rule would move cooperatives into a separate, more restrictive system 鈥� one that limits access to emerging technologies, reduces transparency and increases barriers to deployment.
The result is a two-tier energy system: Urban customers retain access to modern grid solutions, while rural cooperative members 鈥� many in tribal and lower-income communities 鈥� face new restrictions.
That outcome is especially troubling because these are the communities that stand to benefit the most. Rural areas often experience longer outages, higher energy costs and more limited infrastructure. Technologies like battery storage and V2G can help address those challenges by improving resilience and reducing reliance on costly peak power.
They are also important tools for grid modernization 鈥� helping utilities better manage demand, integrate renewable energy and improve overall system performance. In many cases, they can help cooperatives reduce wholesale power costs and defer expensive infrastructure upgrades.
To be clear, the goal is not to force these technologies onto rural electric cooperatives. Co-ops should retain authority over how their systems operate. This is fundamentally about agency 鈥� ensuring that cooperatives and their members have the ability to evaluate and adopt new technologies where they make sense.
There is a meaningful difference between preserving local control and imposing a blanket prohibition. The current proposal does the latter.
A more balanced approach is available. The PRC can maintain a technology-neutral framework 鈥� allowing these resources to interconnect 鈥� while preserving cooperative flexibility to establish reasonable operational requirements.
New Mexico has an opportunity to lead 鈥� not by mandating new technologies, but by ensuring that all communities have the opportunity to benefit from them.
The PRC should take that opportunity.
Ted Smith is CEO of Nuvve New Mexico, a grid modernization company focused on deploying advanced energy and battery storage solutions. He spent much of his childhood in rural New Mexico, where his father taught at Newcomb Elementary School on the Navajo Nation.
