Power company won't allow a good solution for moving utilities

[Katharine Chartrand]

I bought a rehab property in NM and I want to put an addition on the home.  The neighbor's power lines currently cross my property above ground. Specifically, they cross the area where I want to build the addition and they need to be rerouted. 

On my side of the property, it's easiest to reroute the utilities underground because I am already digging a lot of trenches.

On the neighbor's side it's pretty much impossible to underground the utilities and the only way to run the cable is above ground, where it has run historically.

The easiest thing to do is to underground the utilities across my property to the point where the cable has been leaving property.  I proposed to put up a pole where the cable leaves my property, run the utilities up the pole and over to the neighbor's existing service.  

PNM is the electrical provider for most of NM.  The engineer who visited the property actually suggested my preferred solution, and then was told by his boss that it would not be possible.   

Has anyone had experience negotiating with power companies?  I am hoping that since they are a public utilities there is some appeals process.