PRC counsel: statute includes AMI; excluded evidence was a generalized attack

Erin LeCoke, counsel for the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, told the justices the commission's role in this proceeding was to evaluate the reasonableness of a particular grid-modernization application and that the statute explicitly "includes advanced metering infrastructure." She said the excluded testimony sought to proscribe AMI generally rather than to identify a safety issue with PNM's specific proposal.

"As used in this section ' grid modernization means improvements to electric distribution ... and includes advanced metering infrastructure," LeCoke told the court, arguing that the hearing examiner repeatedly set the proceeding's scope and warned that generalized attacks on AMI were outside that scope. She said that approach answered the appellant's due-process concern because notice of the narrower question was given multiple times.