Kentucky Power Cites Capacity Need In Bid To Keep Mitchell Plant

Kentucky Power took a formal step this week toward keeping its half of West Virginia’s Mitchell power plant after 2028.

Kentucky Power filed an application with the Kentucky Public Service Commission Monday to retain the 50% share of Mitchell, a coal-burning plant it operates with Wheeling Power.

Kentucky Power cited a need for the plant’s capacity after 2028 and determined that preserving its share of the plant was the cheapest option.

In 2021, the Kentucky commission denied Kentucky Power’s application to recover costs for environmental compliance upgrades that would keep the plant in operation after 2028.

West Virginia’s Public Service Commission (PSC) then decided that West Virginia electricity customers would bear the entire cost of the upgrades, including Kentucky Power’s share.

Kentucky Power’s current application would seek to recover $77.9 million from its electricity customers through 2031. It would raise the average residential user’s bill $3.68 a month.

Kentucky Power has about 165,000 customers in 20 eastern Kentucky counties. 

In the 2021 case, then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron argued that the investment in the Mitchell plant beyond 2028 wasn’t in the best interest of Kentucky electricity customers.

Kentucky Power and Wheeling Power are owned by American Electric Power (AEP), based in Columbus, Ohio.

In late 2021, AEP moved to sell Kentucky Power to Algonquin Power, a Canadian company. In late 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected the sale.

Mitchell, which can generate 1,560 megawatts, is about 12 miles south of Moundsville and has been in operation since 1971.

According to data from the U.S. Energy Information administration, Mitchell operated with a capacity factor in 2024 of 28.6%, the lowest of AEP’s three West Virginia power plants.