The Cholla Power Plant is a 1.02-gigawatt (1,021 MW),

coal power plant A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate ...

near

Joseph City, Arizona Joseph City (elevation 5,000 ft) is a Census Designated Place located in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. It is located on Interstate 40, approximately eighty miles east of Flagstaff and about thirty-five miles west of Petrified For ...

, United States. The plant is jointly owned by

Arizona Public Service Pinnacle West Capital Corporation is an American utility holding company that owns Arizona Public Service (APS). It is publicly traded on the New York Stock exchange and a component of the S&P 500 stock market index. APS is the largest utility co ...

(APS) and

PacifiCorp PacifiCorp is an electric power company based in the Lloyd Center Tower in Portland, Oregon with operations in the western United States. PacifiCorp has two business units: Pacific Power, a regulated electric utility with service territory thro ...

. The plant began operations in 1962.

History

The coal burned at the plant came mostly from the McKinley Mine, located east of

Window Rock, Arizona Window Rock, known in Navajo language, Navajo as Tségháhoodzání (), is a city and census-designated place that serves as the capital of the Navajo Nation, the largest List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States, Nativ ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, until the mine was closed in 2009 after its reserves being leased were exhausted. In 2010, the

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

(EPA) notified Cholla that pollution controls were needed for Units 2 through 4. Unit 2 was retired in 2016 as the cost to add pollution controls outweighed the benefits. The remaining units were to be either retired or converted to burn another fuel source by 2025. In January 2020, it was announced that PacifiCorp would close unit 4 by the end of the year. APS announced that while a conversion to natural gas had been an option, it was no longer being considered. A proposal was put forth to convert a unit to burn biomass, however regulators at the

Arizona Corporation Commission The Arizona Corporation Commission is the Public Utilities Commission of the Arizona, State of Arizona, established by Article 15 of the Constitution of Arizona, Arizona Constitution. Arizona is one of only fourteen states with elected commission ...

voted down that plan in 2019. In March 2025, APS retired the remaining two units at Cholla. Even though an executive order by the Trump Administration was signed to prevent further closures of coal plants the following month, including Cholla by name, APS evaluated and kept the plant shuttered. The plant would've required $2 billion in investment to bring the facility back online according to a state regulator.

Units

The plant currently consists of the following units:

References

External links

* AP

Data on generation and fuel consumption
from the

Energy Information Administration The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and pub ...

Electricity Data Browser {{Generating stations in Arizona Energy infrastructure completed in 1962 Energy infrastructure completed in 1978 Energy infrastructure completed in 1980 Energy infrastructure completed in 1981 Buildings and structures in Navajo County, Arizona Coal-fired power stations in Arizona PacifiCorp