A bill to bring data centers to West Virginia also has provisions that could result in higher electricity rates.
House Bill 2014 was introduced Tuesday and immediately backed by Gov. Patrick Morrisey. Its main purpose is to enable microgrids in the state that could power data centers, which are currently concentrated in other regions of the country.
The bill also contains three provisions affecting coal-burning power plants in the state.
First, it requires the plants to be ready to operate at a 69% capacity factor. Currently, none of them reaches that threshold, running closer to the average of 40% in the PJM regional grid, which includes West Virginia.
Second, it requires coal-burning power plants to maintain a 45-day supply of coal at each plant, up from 30 days.
Appalachian Power has told state leaders that it would not be economical to operate the coal plants at the higher capacity factor because they have a hard time competing with gas.
Operating at 69% could have raised costs for customers by $240 million over the past 18 months, the company said in a presentation to the state Public Energy Authority.
An expert witness told the Public Service Commission last year that Appalachian Power’s three plants lost $87 million over a 12-month period in 2023 and 2024 because they had too much coal to safely store on site and burned it when it was not economical to do that.
Emmett Pepper, policy director for Energy Efficient West Virginia, says Morrisey didn’t present those parts of the bill.
“There are multiple giveaways to coal-fired generation, and some of them are on the backs of West Virginia ratepayers,” he said.
The bill also appears to make it more difficult for Mon Power to proceed with its plan to replace two coal plants in the state in the next several years with combined-cycle natural gas plants.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting reached out to Appalachian Power and Mon Power for comment on the legislation.
