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Significant Accounting Policies and Responsibility for Financial Statements (Policies)
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2012
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Principles of Consolidation
The Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements of each of PNMR, PNM, and TNMP include their accounts and those of subsidiaries in which that entity owns a majority voting interest. PNM also consolidates the PVNGS Capital Trust and Valencia. PNM owns undivided interests in several jointly-owned power plants and records its pro-rata share of the assets, liabilities, and expenses for those plants.

PNMR shared services' administrative and general expenses, which represent costs that are primarily driven by corporate level activities, are charged to the business segments. These services are billed at cost, except those that were billed to Optim Energy, which included a profit element. Other significant intercompany transactions between PNMR, PNM, and TNMP include transmission and distribution services; lease, interest, and income tax sharing payments; and dividends paid on common stock. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated. See Note 12.
Segment Reporting
The following segment presentation is based on the methodology that management uses for making operating decisions and assessing performance of its various business activities. A reconciliation of the segment presentation to the GAAP financial statements is provided.
Variable Interest Entity
GAAP determines how an enterprise evaluates and accounts for its involvement with variable interest entities, including determining the primary beneficiary of a variable interest entity, by 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.