The Unit 2 and Unit 3 at the San Juan Generating Station located near Farmington, New Mexico were retired in 2017

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The San Juan Generating Station located in New Mexico, US. (Credit: Wikipedia/Steven Baltakatei Sandoval)

Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) has received approval from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC) for the abandonment and securitization of the San Juan Generating Station in the US.

PNM is a wholly-owned New Mexico utility subsidiary of PNM Resources.

The approval follows the submission of consolidated application by the firm in 2019, requesting the abandonment of the San Juan Generating Station, securitisation of the unrecovered investment in the plant and power resources replacement approvals.

Abandonment effective from June 2022

The move will be effective in June 2022 upon the expiration of the PNM’s participation and coal supply agreements.

PNM Resources chairman, president and CEO Pat Vincent-Collawn said: “We are pleased with the decision by the Commission and the Hearing Examiners’ recommended decisions to approve the abandonment and securitization of San Juan.

“Our customers, communities and environment will benefit as we move to exit all of our coal-fired generation and replace it with lower-cost, cleaner energy resources.

“Our focus will now turn to an early exit of the Four Corners Power Plant, and we will look for the right opportunities to execute on this.”

The Unit 2 and Unit 3 at the San Juan Generating Station located near Farmington, New Mexico were retired in 2017.

The retirement of the power plant is part of its strategy to exit coal-fired generation and help meet New Mexico’s renewable energy standards and goal of carbon-free energy.

PNM is also working on plans to exit the 200MW ownership interest in the 1.5GW Four Corners coal-fired power plant situated on the Navajo Nation, 24km west of Farmington, New Mexico, US.