Groups Ask PSC To Reconsider Approval Of Pleasants Power Station Plan

Environmental, consumer and industrial groups want state utility regulators to reconsider their approval of a plan to save a coal-burning power plant.

Energy Efficient West Virginia, Solar United Neighbors and Citizen Action Group has asked the Public Service Commission to revisit its conditional approval of a rescue for the Pleasants Power Station.

Last month, the PSC allowed Mon Power to negotiate an agreement with the plant’s current owner to keep it in operating condition and its workers paid past its previously announced shutdown on May 31.

If an agreement can be reached, the PSC would allow Mon Power to charge ratepayers $3 million a month for a year or more, though Pleasants would produce no electricity.

The groups say the PSC lacks the authority to approve the surcharge and that the PJM regional grid operator has offered no objection to the plant’s retirement based on reliability.

The West Virginia Energy Users Group, which consists of the state’s largest manufacturers, supports the petition to reconsider.