PHOENIX (AP) - The Latest on the Navajo Generating Station (all times local):
9:30 a.m.
The Navajo Generating Station’s operator says owners of the coal-fired power plant in northern Arizona are expected to vote Monday on its future.
The Salt River Project has said closing the plant is a possibility because less expensive power generated by burning natural gas is available.
SRP spokesman Scott Harelson says options include asking the Navajo Nation for an extension of the current lease now set to expire Dec. 22, 2019 and keeping the plant in operation until that date and then decommissioning it.
Decommissioning the plant could involve dissembling and removing the infrastructure but Harelson says talks are underway with the tribe about its preferences.
Navajo and Hopi tribal officials have said they want the plant’s owners to consider the impact a closure would have on the tribes.
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3 a.m.
Arizona Corporation Commissioner Andy Tobin is proposing that Tucson Electric Power evaluate how the potential closing of the Navajo Generating Station will impact customers.
Tobin filed an amendment to the docket concerning TEP’s rate case, which will be heard Wednesday in Tucson by the Corporation Commission.
Last week, Tobin sent a letter to Salt River Project’s president to consider alternatives to shutting down its coal-fired NGS units when the lease expires in 2019.
Tobin says it would cause economic hardship for the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe and other stakeholders.
He wants TEP to provide an analysis of the closing and the possibility for the utility to purchase additional shares of the generating station.
The amendment would prohibit TEP from supporting closure of the generating station without a full commission review.
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