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Electricity for the Las Cruces NM MSA is provided by El Paso Electric (EPE), headquartered in nearby El Paso, Texas. El Paso Electric generates and distributes electricity through an interconnected system to approximately 351,000 customers in the Rio Grande Valley in west Texas and southern New Mexico. Its reliability standards are among the best of all electric utilities in the state of Texas according to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT Project #33629).
Besides its own generating plants in El Paso and southern New Mexico, El Paso Electric maintains an interest in and receives power from the coal-fired Four Corners Generating Station in Farmington, New Mexico and the nuclear powered Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in western Arizona. El Paso Electric has developed a wind energy generating project in the Hueco Mountains about 35 miles east of the City of El Paso’s downtown district.
Natural gas for the area is provided by three utilities. Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), headquartered in Albuquerque, provides natural gas to the southern part of Dona Ana County and maintains an office in Anthony, New Mexico. PNM also has a natural gas fired electric generating plant (interstate transmission) at Afton, southwest of Las Cruces. The City of Las Cruces and Rio Grande Natural Gas Association provide natural gas for the city and northern portions of the county.
Although Dona Ana County is in the arid southwest, water availability is not as critical an issue as it is in other regions of the southwest. Water for the half-million acres of farm land is predominately surface water from the Rio Grande River. Residential and commercial water is provided by ground water from deep wells in the underground aquifers. Water utilities for Las Cruces are provided by the City of Las Cruces. The southern part of the county is served by Dona Ana County Water Utilities and Anthony Water and Sanitation District. There are a number of other private and mutual water districts throughout the county providing service for both residential and commercial customers.
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