The City of Santa Fe is negotiating a deal that will increase the consumption of coal and nuclear power for city operations by more than 70 percent over the next several years.

City officials have been negotiating with PNM, the state’s largest investor-owned utility, to provide power for a new drinking water system it is building. The new water system will require 27-million kilowatt-hours per year.

Proposals to get that energy from on-site generation were said to be unfeasible by PNM in 2006, and creating a public power entity to provide energy for the system was deemed “risky” by the engineer hired by the city to study alternatives. The cost of the electricity needed to run the city’s new water system cannot be determined, because PNM was recently given the right to raise electricity rates as needed to cover its fuel costs.

The video newscast containing this story is here.