NGS Owners Move Forward with Decommissioning

Since the non-federal owners made the difficult decision in February 2017 that they would no longer own and operate Navajo Generating Station (NGS) after its lease ends later this year on Dec. 22, the plant's owners have granted several extensions and taken other steps to enable any interested entity to evaluate and potentially continue operation of NGS upon receipt of all necessary approvals.

Most recently, the owners in October began discussions with Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) at the request of the Navajo Nation and supported NTEC's pursuit of a possible asset transfer by making available information related to NGS and by providing access to the plant.

While the owners have been willing to explore avenues for NTEC to assume ownership of NGS, NTEC is not able to provide the required assurances to protect the plant's owners, their customers and shareholders in the event of a sale. Because of the time challenges to meet their decommissioning obligations, the owners will continue to move forward with plans to decommission NGS later this year.

The NGS owners will continue to fulfill their commitments to the Navajo Nation and the NGS employees as they prepare to cease operations of the plant. Operations at NGS continue to be conducted in a safe manner for employees and investments continue to be made to complete decommissioning of the plant within the current agreed-upon timelines with the Navajo Nation.

The utility owners of NGS include Salt River Project, Arizona Public Service Co., Tucson Electric Power Co., and NV Energy.