Executive: Not Even A Data Center Would Increase Coal Plant Use

Members of a state Senate committee asked an Appalachian Power executive Tuesday what the company could do to burn more coal. The answer: not much.

Members of the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee pressed Randall Short, director of regulatory services for Appalachian Power, on why the company’s three West Virginia plants didn’t operate more.

Short explained that the plants – John Amos, Mountaineer and Mitchell, operate near the 40% average of coal plants within PJM, the 13-state region that includes West Virginia. 

He said the price of gas is largely what drives the decision to run the plants. That is, they’re dispatched when it’s most economical.

“Natural gas sets the market, and it’s beneficial to the customers who use natural gas when the price is $2 or $3 an MCF (thousand cubic feet), but at those prices, it’s very hard to get a coal contract that can beat that price,” Short said.

Short also said federal regulations, unless dramatically altered, would force big changes to the way the plants operate, including at least partial conversion from coal to gas, or their retirement.

“We will have to either co-fire with gas to a certain percentage (or) we will have to do carbon capture for a percentage,” he said. “But as the rules currently stand today, they have a very short life ahead of them.”

Short was also asked what impact a big electricity user, such as a data center, would have on coal plant operations. It wouldn’t necessarily mean they’d burn more coal, he said.

“If we were to land a sizable new customer, we may have to acquire additional capacity,” he said. “If our capacity obligation, that’s the total amount of capacity we have, if that exceeds what we currently have, we would add generation. Now, once we have them, the amount of time we run either that new plant or the existing plants we have will still rely upon economic dispatch.”

Appalachian Power is seeking a 14% increase in base rates. The West Virginia Public Service Commission will consider that case this summer.