Variable Interest Entities

GAAP determines how an enterprise evaluates and accounts for its involvement with variable interest entities, focusing primarily on whether the enterprise has the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of a variable interest entity. GAAP also requires continual reassessment of the primary beneficiary of a variable interest entity.

PNM has a PPA to purchase all of the electric capacity and energy from Valencia, a 145 MW natural gas-fired power plant near Belen, New Mexico through May 2028. A third-party built, owns, and operates the facility while PNM is the sole purchaser of the electricity generated. The total construction cost for the facility was $90.0 million. During the term of the PPA, PNM has the option to purchase and own up to 50% of the plant or the variable interest entity. PNM estimates that the plant will typically operate during peak periods of energy demand in summer. PNM is obligated to pay fixed O&M and capacity charges in addition to variable O&M charges under this PPA. For the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010, and 2009, PNM paid $18.3 million, $17.9 million, and $17.7 million for fixed charges and $1.4 million, $1.1 million, and $0.5 million for variable charges. PNM does not have any other financial obligations related to Valencia. The assets of Valencia can only be used to satisfy obligations of Valencia and creditors of Valencia do not have any recourse against PNM’s assets.

PNM sources fuel for the plant, controls when the facility operates through its dispatch, and receives the entire output of the plant, which factors directly and significantly impact the economic performance of Valencia. Therefore, PNM has concluded that the third party entity that owns Valencia is a variable interest entity and that PNM is the primary beneficiary of the entity under GAAP since PNM has the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of Valencia and will absorb the majority of the variability in the cash flows of the plant. As the primary beneficiary, PNM consolidates the entity in its financial statements. Accordingly, the assets, liabilities, operating expenses, and cash flows of Valencia are included in the consolidated financial statements of PNM although PNM has no legal ownership interest or voting control of the variable interest entity. The assets and liabilities of Valencia set forth below are immaterial to PNM and, therefore, not shown separately on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. The owner’s equity and net income of Valencia are considered attributable to non-controlling interest.

Summarized financial information for Valencia is as follows:



Results of Operations
	Year ended December 31,
	2011			2010			2009
	(In thousands)
Operating revenues	$	19,720		$	18,907		$	18,175
Operating expenses	(5,673		)	(5,344		)	(6,285		)
Earnings attributable to non-controlling interest	$	14,047		$	13,563		$	11,890



Financial Position
	December 31,
	2011		2010
	(In thousands)
Current assets	$	2,405	$	2,372
Net property, plant and equipment	80,785		83,617
Total assets	83,190		85,989
Current liabilities	767		812
Owners’ equity – non-controlling interest	$	82,423	$	85,177

PNM leases interests in Units 1 and 2 of PVNGS under arrangements, which were entered into in 1985 and 1986, that are accounted for as operating leases. There are currently eight separate lease agreements with eight different trusts whose beneficial owners are five different institutional investors. PNM is not the legal or tax owner of the leased assets. The beneficial owners of the trusts possess all of the voting control and pecuniary interests in the trusts. As described in Note 7, PNM has an option to purchase the leased assets at appraised value at the end of the leases, but does not have a fixed price purchase option and does not provide residual value guarantees. PNM has options to renew the leases at fixed rates set forth in the leases for two years beyond the termination of the original lease terms. The option periods on certain leases may be further extended for up to an additional six years if the appraised remaining useful lives and fair value of the leased assets are greater than parameters set forth in the leases. Under GAAP, these renewal options are considered to be variable interests in the trusts and result in the trusts being considered variable interest entities. PNM is only obligated to make payments to the trusts for the scheduled semi-annual lease payments, which, net of amounts that will be returned to PNM through its ownership in related lessor notes, aggregate $105.1 million over the remaining terms of the leases. Under certain circumstances (for example, final shutdown of the plant, the NRC issuing specified violation orders with respect to PVNGS, or the occurrence of specified nuclear events), PNM would be required to make specified payments to the beneficial owners and take title to the leased interests. If such an event had occurred as of December 31, 2011, PNM could have been required to pay the beneficial owners up to approximately $178.3 million, which would result in PNM taking ownership of the leased assets and termination of the leases. PNM has no other financial obligations or commitments to the trusts or the beneficial owners. Creditors of the trusts have no recourse to PNM’s assets other than with respect to the contractual lease payments. PNM has no additional rights to the assets of the trusts other than the use of the leased assets. PNM has no assets or liabilities recorded on its Consolidated Balance Sheets related to the trusts other than accrued lease payments of $26.0 million at December 31, 2011 and 2010, which are included in other current liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. See Note 7.

PNM has evaluated the PVNGS lease arrangements and concluded that it does not have the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the trusts and, therefore, is not the primary beneficiary of the trusts under GAAP. The significant factors considered in reaching this conclusion are: the periods covered by fixed price renewal options are significantly shorter than the anticipated remaining useful lives of the assets, particularly since the operating licenses for the plants were extended for twenty years through 2045 for Unit 1 and 2046 for Unit 2; PNM’s only financial obligation to the trusts is to make the fixed lease payments and the payments do not vary based on the output of the plants or their performance; during the lease term, the economic performance of the trusts is substantially fixed due to the fixed lease payments; PNM is only one of several participants in PVNGS and is not the operating agent for the plants, so does not significantly influence the day-to-day operations of the plants; furthermore, the operations of the plants, including plans for their decommissioning, are highly regulated by the NRC, leaving little room for the participants to operate the plants in a manner that impacts the economic performance of the trusts; the economic performance of the trusts at the end of the lease terms is dependent upon the fair value and remaining lives of the plants at that time, which are determined by factors such as power prices, outlook for nuclear power, and the impacts of potential carbon legislation or regulation, all which are outside of PNM’s control; and while PNM has some potential benefit from its renewal options, the vast majority of the value at the end of the leases will accrue to the beneficial owners of the trusts, particularly given increases in the value of existing nuclear generating facilities, which have no GHG, resulting from potential carbon legislation or regulation.

PNM has a PPA covering the entire output of Delta, which is a variable interest under GAAP. This arrangement was entered into prior to December 31, 2003 and PNM has been unsuccessful in obtaining the information necessary to determine if it is the primary beneficiary of the entity that owns Delta, or to consolidate that entity if it were determined that PNM is the primary beneficiary. Accordingly, PNM is unable to make those determinations and, as provided in GAAP, continues to account for this PPA as an operating lease. PNM makes fixed and variable payments to Delta under the PPA. PNM also controls the dispatch of the generating plant, which impacts the variable payments made under the PPA and impacts the economic performance of the entity that owns Delta. For the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010, and 2009, PNM incurred fixed payments of $6.0 million, $6.0 million, and $6.4 million and variable payments of $1.5 million, $0.4 million, and $0.4 million under the PPA. PNM’s only quantifiable obligation under the PPA is to make the fixed payments, which as of December 31, 2011, aggregated $51.1 million through the end of the PPA in 2020. PNM will also pay variable costs, which cannot be quantified since the amounts are based on how much the generating plant is in operation. PNM has no other obligations or commitments with respect to Delta.