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 plants are aging. It retired its Philip Sporn power plant in Mason County and its Kanawha River Power Plant in Kanawha County in 2015. Zimmer coal-fired plant in Ohio on May 31, 2022, five years ahead of a previous retirement schedule. The regional grid operator must certify that enough power is available from other sources to meet all expected needs. 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.. 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. Your e-mail address will be used to confirm your account. 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. racist or sexually-oriented language. The Ohio Valley ReSource gets support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and our partner stations. The big game changer, however, could be a tax on carbon. However, the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) on July 15 only approved CCR-compliance projects at Mitchell, moving distinctly to deny projects related to the ELG rule. CreditSights analyst Andrew DeVries said industry observers are expecting an acceleration of coal plant retirements under U.S. President Joe Biden and following the recent "ugly PJM auction" results. Editorial: Two power plants' future becomes uncertain. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. I know it can happen, but I just don't think it will happen again.". The region's recovery from the 2016 flood -- and continued reliance on the fossil fuel economy -- illustrate the dueling human and economic stakes in West Virginia's lawsuit against the EPA. Doing the work on their wastewater systems would delay the cost of retiring the plants and finding new sources of power to replace them. Thats what were seeing. Without the upgrades, which cost an estimated $444 million, the . While the extreme flood that submerged Clendenin was exceptional, government and academic climatologists warn that the threat of extreme rain events is growing across West Virginia, which already ranks third in the country in flooding disasters over the last 70 years. They've towered over the region's communities for decades. The West Virginia Public Service Commission must decide in the coming weeks whether to approve an environmental compliance surcharge on electricity customers. For more than four decades, the plant, now Appalachian. Click here to explore our interactive coal ash map >>. estimated the states power plants account for $4.8 billion in direct output, $725 million in wages and $97.3 million tax in revenue. With a nameplate rating of 2,933 MW,[1]it is the largest generating plant in the AEP system. "To allow un-elected bureaucrats just to decide under the guise of good government that's not right. But I think everybody knows that those plants are closing at some point.. "We put so much clean energy, clean stuff on [the plant]. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. AEP has committed to reducing its carbon dioxide emissions and obtaining more of its power from renewable resources while also divesting itself of much of its coal-powered generating fleet. AEPs decision to retrofit Amos and Mountaineer for ELG compliance builds on the 2020 rule, which establishes additional options for reusing and discharging small volumes of bottom ash transport water, provides an exception for retiring units and extends the compliance deadline to a date as soon as possible beginning one year after the rule was published but no later than December 2025, the company said in late July. By, Instructions for Submitting an Event to WMKY, Contests, Giveaways, Lotteries and Raffles Policy, The West Virginia Public Service Commission, How South Africa nearly descended into civil war instead of a multi-racial democracy, Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr sues over her removal from House floor, The guy who ate a $120,000 banana in an art museum says he was just hungry, Arkansas woman pleads not guilty to selling over 20 boxes of stolen human body parts, A decoder that uses brain scans to know what you mean mostly, Latest on Ukraine: May Day's another war day as Russia strikes Ukrainian cities. Close. Both states commissions will consider AEPs proposal later this month. Under the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the first updates to federal effluent limitation guidelines since 1982 in November 2015, setting stringent Best Available Technology (BAT) effluent limitations and pretreatment standards for existing sources (PSES) as they apply to bottom ash transport water and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater. 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. In that report, the examiner recommended that the SCC should approve only recovery of CCR-related costs. As noted here before, the coal-fired fleet in this region is expected to reach its scheduled retirement age sometime around 2040. The Public Service Commission of West Virginia would have a say, and undoubtedly the governor and the Legislature would step in. Appalachian Power is supposed to report the results of its study before the end of 2022. The model predicts one of Mitchells two units would close in two years, and the other in three. The company sought recovery of an estimated $240 million investment to ensure both plants will be in compliance with both federal rules. A report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that the John Amos, Mountaineer and Mitchell plants will no longer be economical to operate in five years. For Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power, the plans show that both American Electric Power subsidiaries will continue to rely on the John Amos, Mitchell and Mountaineer coal-fired plants. West Virginia Coal Plants Need Upgrades. Three States Will Decide Their Great place to work. A couple of large coal-fired power plants in this area could be retired ahead of schedule. AEP and other power plant operators are retiring coal-fired plants in the region. We had more snow when I was a kid. The John Amos power plant in Mason County isn't set to close anytime soon, but many U.S. coal plants are. Keep it Clean. According to GlobalData, who tracks and profiles over 170,000 power plants worldwide, the project is currently active. Your e-mail address will be used to confirm your account. Curtis Tate/West Virginia Public Broadcasting Listen By 2026, half of U.S. coal plant capacity will have retired over the course of just 15 years. The ELG rule, for example, has been mired in rollbacks, prompting some uncertainty within the coal power sector about where and when to make investments. AEP shut down the Conesville Plant in Coshocton, A 2018 investigation by the Ohio Valley ReSource and partner station WFPL. 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. Chris Harris/The Herald-Dispatch The John Amos Power Plant in Putnam County, W.Va., Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008. Similar projects are slated for the Mountaineer plant, including a modification of the bottom ash handling system, installation of a new ash bunker, and a retrofit of a new ultrafiltration system to the existing FGD treatment system. You all probably know that John Amos was a director for AEP and a native West Virginian. Appalachian Power is proposing several options including making the pollution control modifications to all three plants or closing Mitchell by 2028 and making the modifications to John Amos. The top 10 emitting power plants in America - E&E News The Congressional Budget Office estimates a $25 a ton carbon tax, indexed to inflation, could raise $1 trillion over a decade. We'll send breaking news and news alerts to you as they happen! Appalachian Power is supposed to report the results of its study before the end of 2022. the commission denied about $4.2 million of expenses AEP had proposed for projects that would help the plants comply with the ELG rule. However, without the John Amos Power Plant generating 2,900 megawatts of electricity, life's simplest tasks would be much harder. They want to have clean water. 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 early and simultaneous retirement of nearly two-thirds of the companys capacity would expose the company and our customers to an imprudent level of uncertainty and market volatility, she said. The SCCs order is a new setback for Appalachian Power, which has said cost recovery of CCR and ELG retrofits at the plants would allow their generating units to provide crucially needed capacity and energy value to the utilitys customers in Virginia and West Virginia through 2040. The order also directs Kentucky Power to provide the journal entries recorded when Kentucky Power acquired Mitchell and Mitchells remaining net book value, including all plant accounts and asset retirement obligations, as of the most recent month for which records are available, the PSC said in a statement. Martins analysis suggested that [t]he cumulative net cost of an Amos-only early retirement reaches a peak $880 million, and the Amos and Mountaineer early retirement net cost impact reaches $1.55 billion by 2039. These costs anticipate the quick installation of new resources that would be required to replace the plants combined 4.2-GW capacity, his testimony suggested. The plant employs around 300 people with . The cost of wind and solar have plummeted in recent years. Taking Amos and Mountaineer out of service would not be a simple step for AEP. Both are owned and operated by Appalachian Power, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, and both burn coal to generate electricity. This full-time position is located at the John Amos Power Plant in Winfield West Virginia. CLENDENIN, West Virginia -- A historic flood from sudden torrential rain nearly wiped out entire towns in West Virginia's mountainous coal country, killing 23 and inflicting $1 billion in damage. And even 2030 is feeling optimistic at this point, for sure.. Editorial: Two power plants' future becomes uncertain Experts say strict limits to EPA authority could also make it impossible to cut U.S. carbon emissions in half by 2030 and entirely phase out fossil fuels like coal by 2050 -- top White House objectives. PSC gives approval for upgrades at John Amos, Mountaineer - WCHS Coal-fired power plants peaked at 314 gigawatts of electricity in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Last year, Morgan Stanley went further and predicted there would be no coal producing electricity by 2033. "The only question now is the glide path and how steep it is," Godby said. 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.
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