Font ResizeLAS CRUCES - Do-a Ana County commissioners declared a state of emergency on Tuesday because of last week's frigid cold, a move that opens the door for financial reimbursement for some costs.
Also, commissioners questioned El Paso Electric Co. Vice President Clay Doyle, who oversees public affairs in the company's New Mexico operations, about rolling power outages that plagued Do-a Ana County and west Texas during last week's 90-plus hours of below-freezing weather.
Commissioners, in a 3-0 vote, OK'd a state of emergency during the regular meeting. The action allows the county to seek reimbursement from other government agencies for equipment and overtime expenses associated with the cold weather, said county spokesman Jess Williams.
Those costs will total about $15,000, according to a county estimate.
Williams said he's not sure how long it might take to apply for and receive the reimbursement, but the county has gone through the process for previous emergencies.
"We've got a good application system," he said.
County Fire Marshal Robert Monsivaiz, who oversees the county's Office of Emergency Management, said the source of the reimbursement will be either state or federal funds.
"We have to see what we qualify for," he said. "This is the beginning stages, really."
County Commissioner Billy Garrett and Commission Chairwoman Dolores Salda-a-Caviness didn't vote on the measure because they left the meeting before it ended, but they were present at the beginning, when
County Commissioners Leticia Duarte-Benavidez and Scott Krahling grilled Doyle about why the electric company decided to shut off power in some neighborhoods more frequently than others and why some parts of the city remained online the entirety of the more-than-three-day cold snap.
Duarte-Benavidez asked why the Picacho Hills area saw no outages.
Doyle said the rolling outages were carried out by shutting off various circuits within the entire grid to avoid a collapse of the whole system. The company followed a plan, called the "load-shed plan," that spells out how rolling outages should be conducted. The document, he said, identifies circuits with hospitals and infrastructure that should remain online except in the most serious situations.
Picacho Hills, Doyle said, is on the same circuit as the Do-a Ana County Government Center, which includes the sheriff's department, and the city sewage treatment plant, which needed electricity to continue running.
"Yes, it is unfair because if you as a customer don't happen to share a circuit as the hospital or one of these, you're going to see more outages during these times when we have to activate this plan," he said. "We tried to minimize those outages to under an hour."
Doyle said in the 19 years he's worked at the company, it has never had to use the load-shed plan. He said it prioritizes which circuits should be taken offline before others, but that he didn't know the specifics.
Prompting the outages, Doyle said, were equipment and pipes that froze, taking offline eight of the company's nine local generators. Other problems included frozen biodiesel in vehicles; frozen piping, including one section 6-feet underground; and frozen fluids in heavy machinery, he said.
Garrett asked Doyle to include the public in discussions about what went wrong.
County Commissioner Karen Perez said she had access to heat in her Talavera home, but didn't have water for several days. She said her family did its best to conserve energy in that time, but she criticized members of the public who didn't follow instructions to cut back, including an El Pasoan who appeared on TV using a car wash during that city's water shortage.
"It's mind-bending," she said.
Doyle acknowledged the company fell short in communicating to customers about the situation, something it met with city leaders Monday to discuss.
"We learned from this event it's impossible to over-communicate; it's easy to under-communicate," he said.
Salda-a-Caviness said she had six or seven blackouts last week in Santa Teresa.
"It's been a learning experience, and I'm sure you all will take it as such," she said.
Doyle said the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission plans to request an investigation into the outages, "which is appropriate." Also, the company will review the load-shed plan.
Diana M. Alba can be reached at (575) 541-5443.
Other action
In other action Tuesday, the Do-a Ana County Board of Commissioners:
•Decided to begin recruiting for a citizen advisory panel that will make recommendations about redistricting the county's five commission seats. Prior to that, the commission heard from Bill McCamley, a former county commissioner and representative from Common Cause of Southern New Mexico, who asked that a citizen panel be appointed to reduce the influence of politics on redrawing the new boundaries.
•Convened in closed session to discuss threatened or pending litigation.
•Heard a budget update from County Finance Director Bill Noland.
•Accepted the county's 2010 audit report.
On the Web
•Do-a Ana County: www.donaanacounty.org
