Bloodworth said goals such as the Biden administration's aim for a carbon-free grid by 2035 are "neither achievable nor realistic." As of June 30, Appalachian Power estimated its total ELG investment capital work in progress(CWIP) balances at both plants amounted to $28 million. The Ohio Valley ReSource gets support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and our partner stations. The two plants represent around two-thirds of the subsidiarys generating fleet. And if it means raising our utility bills a little bit, so be it.. Appalachian Power's John E. Amos Plant uses about 6 to 7 million tons of coal each year. - February 4, 2022. Logan County quartet selected for North-South All Star Basketball Classic, Former Herd star Gore hired at Western Carolina, Chapmanville baseball edges Charleston Catholic, 3-2, Scotty Browning inks with Georgetown College, Tigers, Wildcats' boys and girls tennis squads compete in Cardinal Conference tourney, Chapmanville picks up road win at Tug Valley, 10-5, Logan snaps top-ranked Chapmanville's 14-game winning streak, Cooper's no-hitter propels Man to 6-0 win in rematch against AA No. "What nobody is talking about is the fact natural gas prices are now over $3 and absent a CO2 tax, a scrubbed coal plant can come close to competing with a gas plant, so maybe coal plant retirements continue but actually slow down," DeVries said. And so it's a tough spot if you own these utilities, he said, so I understand why they're struggling to think about what their options are.. From that year through 2020, power companies retired 95 gigawatts of that power, nearly a third. The CCR-only option at Amos and Mountaineerwhich anticipates both plants would retire by 2028would cost a total $72.7 million at Amos (including $52.1 million in capital costs, $3.7 million in other charges, and $16.9 million in asset retirement obligation [ARO] costs), and $52.1 million for the Mountaineer plant (including $19.3 million in capital costs, $3.4 million in other charges, and $29.5 million in ARO costs). This is Congress's decision to make, not the EPA.". At the Virginia SCC, Appalachian Power had argued its proposed investments for specific projects at the Amos and Mountaineer plants were the most cost-effective means of compliance with the federal CCR and ELG rules. As noted here before, the coal-fired fleet in this region is expected to reach its scheduled retirement age sometime around 2040. Our next steps will be to evaluate our options in light of those orders, determine the best path forward to meet the resource needs in each state, and return to the commissions if necessary for consideration of our updated costs and plans, a spokesperson said. Amos, a 2,930-MW coal plant located near the Kanawha River in Putnam County, West Virginia, is the AEP systems largest generating plant. Over the same period, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates more frequent and more powerful storms in the region have dumped 55% more rain. Cloudy with showers. They plan on retiring another 25 gigawatts through 2025. Closing the Mitchell plant in 2028 would save $118 million, it found. Utility giant Duke Energy Corp. is among the companies accelerating coal plant retirements to meet company and North Carolina emissions-reduction goals. A couple of large coal-fired power plants in this area could be retired ahead of schedule. The John E. Amos Power Plant near Winfield, West Virginia, is being studied for early retirement, along with the Mountaineer Power Plant near New Haven, West Virginia. In separate December 2020submitted cost recovery filings with regulators in West Virginia and Kentucky, two other AEP subsidiariesWheeling Power and Kentucky Powerhad also sought cost recovery for CCR and ELG investments for another West Virginia coal plant, AEPs 1,560-MW Mitchell Plant in Marshall County. Whats Your Heat Exchanger Maintenance IQ? Yet these power plants are vulnerable to the same economic forces that have swept through the industry nationwide in the past decade. An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account. For example, NRG Energy Inc. announced June 17 that it would retire about 1,600 MW of coal capacity in the PJM Interconnection following the results of the May capacity auction. Whether they close in 2028, 2040 or sometime between, the three plants will leave a void in the surrounding communities. A final decision should be coming in the next several weeks. Meanwhile, power generators are speeding up the exit from coal. Matt Bevin and former President Donald Trump. AEP says the energy generated at the John Amos Plant is enough to. Theres also the delicate matter of what happens to the communities that depend on the plants for jobs and tax revenue, as well as the coal mines that supply them. And so its a tough spot if you own these utilities, he said, so I understand why theyre struggling to think about what their options are.. The demand for electricity is flat, even factoring in the pandemic. Fossil fuel energy is still a mainstay in state. Aerial image of the Mountaineer plant with groundwater testing results near ash waste. Be Truthful. At Amos, Appalachian Power has proposed to modify the bottom ash handling system (to prevent discharge of bottom ash transfer water), as well as install two new ash bunkers. American Electric Power, one of the nation's largest utilities which owns the John Amos facility, granted ABC News Live rare access to see firsthand how its workforce of up to 1000 full-time and contract workers generate enough power for two million homes and businesses across three states. Zimmer coal-fired plant in Ohio on May 31, 2022, five years ahead of a previous retirement schedule. "The impact here is going to be increased mining, increased pollution," said Gunnoe. Market Intelligence But three West Virginia coal-fired power plants owned by Ohio-based American Electric Power may be on borrowed time. Theyve towered over the regions communities for decades. that the ELG investment is reasonable and prudent, including from an economic or a resource adequacy perspective. Still, the SCC allowed Appalachian Power to provide more analyses and evidence to support the ELG investment. But John Amos was also a Democratic National Committeeman. Appalachian Power is a subsidiary of American Electric Power, which is based in Columbus, Ohio. Appalachian Power Company's John Amos Power Plant is a 2,933 MW coal-fired power plant located near along the Kanawha River in Winfield, West Virginia. In the meantime, the organization calls for reforms to power markets that would support coal through mechanisms such as crediting plants for reliability and resilience. It retired its Philip Sporn power plant in Mason County and its Kanawha River Power Plant in Kanawha County in 2015. Still, power customers will have to pay those costs whenever the plants shut down. It sold the Gavin plant at Cheshire, Ohio, a few years ago, and it has announced plans to reduce output at its large plant at Rockport, Indiana. The John Amos power plant in Mason County isn't set to close anytime soon, but many U.S. coal plants are. Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence It predicts Mountaineers single unit would shut down in three years. "But step one is to plan the retirement for coal units.". That's according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. We told the Virginia SCC that making the environmental investments for both CCR and ELG compliance at Amos and Mountaineer plants is more beneficial for customers than making only the CCR compliance investments, retiring the plants in 2028, and finding replacement capacity, she said. It predicts Mountaineers single unit would shut down in three years. (Nationwide less than a quarter of electricity is produced from coal.). All Rights Reserved. Now comes the hard part as Putnam and Mason counties wait for the study results and for the involved interest groups the bureaucracy, politicians, environmental groups, the coal industry and others to weigh in and prepare for battle. We find it is critically important to analyze the overall impact of this investment on both customer rates and reliability, and that [for this specific expense] the instant record is currently lacking in both regards, the SCC said in its order. Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in. Thats a risky investment considering the deteriorating economics of coal, said James Van Nostrand, who teaches law at West Virginia University and directs its, Center for Energy and Sustainable Development. Were going to have additional hundreds of million dollars of investment thats going to be stranded and have to be paid for by the ratepayers, he said. You all probably know that John Amos was a director for AEP and a native West Virginian. Sign up for the Ohio Valley Resource newsletter. Chance of rain 90%.. All three West Virginia plants must comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys rules for the disposal of ash from burning the coal and the wastewater generated by the plants. When AEP has built new fossil fuel-powered plants in recent years, they have been gas burners. "It has incredible potential to affect how EPA and other agencies write regulations for years to come," Kevin Minoli, a former EPA acting general counsel and career civil servant, said of the case. John E. Amos Power Plantis a three-unit coal-fired power plant owned and operated by Appalachian Power, a subsidiary of American Electric Power(AEP). With a carbon tax, the Sierra Club projects that utility customers could save $2.4 billion if Amos closed in 2028; $1.5 billion if Amos and Mountaineer closed and $350 million if Mitchell closed. A variety of resources for professional growth. The model predicts one of Mitchells two units would close in two years, and the other in three. They burned coal, a fossil fuel Appalachia has in abundance. However, coal plants are also increasingly uneconomic compared to alternatives in some places, and at the same time, increased scrutiny on sustainability is driving corporate decisions to retire more coal. Be Nice. Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power, both subsidiaries of Ohio-based American Electric Power, have testified that upgrading the plants represents the best value for ratepayers. Holladay says the utilities may choose to keep them open and lose money. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? The John Amos Power Plant, operated by American Electric Power, sits on 400 acres along the Kanawha River in Winfield, WVa. Part of the costs will be passed on to ratepayers. While AEP has made a major effort to pare down its reliance on coal powerkeeping with ambitions it announced in September 2019that it would seek to go net-zero by 2050as of June 30, the AEP system held 12.1 GW of coal-fired capacity, which is still nearly half its total capacity of 24.7 GW. Invalid password or account does not exist. If we instead retired one or both of the plants, we would have to spend billions of dollars on replacement capacity much earlier than necessary. Mayor Kay Summers of Clendenin, West Virginia, says she's haunted by the historic 2016 flood that nearly wiped out her town but still skeptical of the science around climate change. The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC)on Aug. 23 rattled American Electric Powers (AEPs) plans to operate the 2.9-GW John Amos and 1.3-GW Mountaineer coal power plants through 2040 when it partly denied cost recovery for expenses that the West Virginia plants need to comply with the federal Steam Electric Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) rule. Editorial: Two power plants' future becomes uncertain. the commission denied about $4.2 million of expenses AEP had proposed for projects that would help the plants comply with the ELG rule. Both are owned and operated by Appalachian Power, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, and both burn coal to generate electricity. "The only question now is the glide path and how steep it is," Godby said. She says the legal fight over coal draws attention from a need to diversify the state's energy portfolio. The organization supports technologies like carbon capture and storage, even though it may take time before that is developed and deployed at a larger scale. Curtis Tate/West Virginia Public Broadcasting Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power did not prudently manage their coal supplies in 2021 and 2022, leading to shortages of fuel and higher electricity costs, a consulting group has concluded.