PNM Archives https://www.power-eng.com/tag/pnm/ The Latest in Power Generation News Mon, 03 Oct 2022 16:36:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://www.power-eng.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/cropped-CEPE-0103_512x512_PE-140x140.png PNM Archives https://www.power-eng.com/tag/pnm/ 32 32 Last coal burns at New Mexico’s San Juan station https://www.power-eng.com/coal/last-coal-burns-at-new-mexicos-san-juan-station/ Mon, 03 Oct 2022 16:36:28 +0000 https://www.power-eng.com/?p=118247 Follow @KClark_News

Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) said Sept. 30 the last unit at its coal-fired San Juan Generating Station has officially been removed from service.

The shutdown of Unit 4 follows the retirement of Unit 1 in June 2022. The San Juan plant, located in Farmington, New Mexico, had four units but was reduced to two in 2017, with the closure of Units 2 and 3. The plant’s first unit was brought online in 1973.

The plant’s closure could be the end of a proposal to equip San Juan with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Along with Enchant Energy, the city of Farmington has been working to keep the plant open for such a project. Farmington said CCS could remove 95% of carbon dioxide from San Juan’s emissions. 

On Sept. 21 the city filed a complaint for declaratory judgment and coercive relief against PNM and other San Juan co-owners.

Farmington claims it has the right under a 2017 agreement to acquire PNM’s and other exiting owners’ interests in the plant. If all owners but one decide to exit from the plant, the agreement requires that plant assets be conveyed to the last remaining owner. 

PNM is the plant’s majority owner, while Farmington owns a 5% stake.

The city said it has initiated negotiations to work out an orderly transfer of plant assets once the other owners exited.

Efforts to negotiate with PNM and other exiting owners to transfer the plant to Farmington have not been productive, said a city of Farmington spokesperson. According to the Farmington Daily Times, sticking point issues include who should be liable for decommissioning and the environmental clean-up of the plant if the facility were to change hands.

“In August 2022, Defendants terminated any negotiations, and they have since declared their intention to close the San Juan Generating Station beginning in September 2022,” the spokesperson said.

Added Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett: “Our community surely deserves more than PNM and the other owners playing hide-the-ball with these negotiations.  We go to the mat for our community – and, unfortunately, the actions of PNM and the other exiting owners are forcing us to enforce our rights by initiating litigation to do just that.”

PNM has not responded to a request for comment. Last month the utility told the Daily Times it is required to file a demolition plan with San Juan County within 90 days of closing the plant — work that was already being planned out.

PNM says with San Juan’s closure, coal-fired generation now makes up less than 10% of its resource capacity. The utility plans to replace San Juan with a mix of natural gas, wind, solar and battery storage, with the goal of eliminating CO2 emissions from its generation portfolio by 2040.

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PNM says it needs 700 MW of new resources ASAP https://www.power-eng.com/renewables/pnm-says-it-needs-700-mw-of-new-resources-asap/ Sun, 22 May 2022 13:30:06 +0000 https://www.power-eng.com/?p=117051 Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) is asking energy developers to submit resource proposals that could add up to 700 MW. The catch? Those new resources need to have guaranteed in-service dates by or before May 1, 2023 or May 1, 2024.

Concerns are growing in the state over a potential energy shortage leading up to summer 2023. 

The request for resources came in an unusually sharply worded statement from the utility, which said it had shared its challenges in “getting adequate energy resources approved and energized.”

It said the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission’s selection of a San Juan coal-fired generating plant replacement plan left the electric power system short 120 MW. It blamed the commission’s “over reliance on regional market purchases and demand response programs” for the problem. And it said the expected deficit has only widened as four “Commission selected third-party energy developers have been unable to deliver their new energy resources on time.”

The utility said it had worked to ease the risk of rotating outages this summer by temporarily extending the San Juan coal-fired generating plant. It said ongoing concerns include uncertainty around the in-service dates for two of the four replacement resources, the timing of commission approvals for replacing previously leased capacity from the Palo Verde nuclear generating station, and ongoing supply chain issues. Supply agreements with Palo Verde expire next year.

PNM said it “is effectively facing capacity deficits of as much as 450 MW needed to reliably serve our customers during the 2023 summer.” 

Expectations are that two solar power plants will enter service before summer 2023. Those are the 450 MW Arroyo solar and battery system being developed by D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments in McKinley County, and the 70 MW Jicarilla solar and battery facility being built on Native American tribal land in Rio Arriba County.

Construction and startup dates for the other two projects – 8minute Solar Energy’s 130 MW Rockmont solar and battery facility and Panorama Holding and Photosol US Renewable Energy’s 300 MW San Juan solar and battery project – are less certain.

The coal-fired San Juan station was scheduled to be shut down at the end of June following an agreement reached in 2021 between the utility and its regulators to replace its capacity with solar energy.

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