The New Mexico Supreme Court (United States) has granted a request from the power utility Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) delaying regulatory proceedings related to the closure of the 847 MW San Juan coal-fired power plant (near Waterflow, New Mexico). Initially slated for retirement in 2022, the extension of its operational life is currently at stake and negotiations are going on. Acme Equities, which is negotiating with the city of Farmington to take over the power plant, is considering equipping it with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology to cut its CO2 emissions by 90%.
PNM is the majority owner and the other shareholders are the city of Farmington (New Mexico), Tucson Electric Power, the Los Alamos County, and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems. In 2017, they jointly agreed to shut the plant for 2022 - i.e. 30 years before the scheduled life of the plant but they are now assessing the possibility of keeping the plant online as no loophole has been found. San Juan began commercial operations in 1973. Two units, namely San Juan-2 and San Juan-3, retired in 2017.