Public Service Co. of New Mexico has completed the shutdown of two units at its coal-fired San Juan power plant near Farmington, N.M.
The PNM Resources Inc. subsidiary closed for good units 2 and 3 a few days earlier than an agreed-upon Dec. 31 deadline due to some maintenance problems. Workers will clean out the units and complete other procedures before retiring them permanently.
PNM, the New Mexico Environment Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to retire the units as part of a revised state implementation plan, in compliance with the Clean Air Act. The utility plans to shut down the remaining two units at San Juan by 2022.
The removal of the units from operations will result in reduction of coal and water consumption by 50% and power production of approximately 836 MW at PNM. The utility plans fill in the production gap with renewable resources, nuclear and natural gas generation.
