Kentucky Power Coal Plant Needs A Big Repair. Could The Feds Help?

The Mitchell Plant needs some costly repairs, and its owner says it intends to seek a federal grant to help pay for it.

One of Mitchell’s two concrete cooling towers is failing structurally and needs to be reinforced or replaced.

That’s what Kentucky Power told the Kentucky Public Service Commission in written testimony filed Friday.

Kentucky Power also said it would apply for a portion of the $625 million the U.S. Department of Energy recently made available to coal generating facilities to extend their lives.

Karen Wissing, a spokeswoman for Kentucky Power sister company Appalachian Power, said there was no immediate danger to the public or workers at the plant, near Moundsville, West Virginia. She couldn’t say how much the repairs might cost electricity customers.

“We intend to explore available Department of Energy funding to mitigate any impact our customers might experience,” Wissing said. “However, since the project is in the very early stages, we cannot provide any specific estimates.”

Mitchell, which is jointly owned by Kentucky Power and Wheeling Power, is 54 years old, about the average age of coal plants scheduled for retirement.

To get approval for the cooling tower proposal, Kentucky Power would need to file a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity with the Kentucky PSC, and Wheeling Power would do the same at the West Virginia PSC.

Emmett Pepper, policy director for Energy Efficient West Virginia, said the Mitchell project sounded “expensive.”

“We have had too many increases to our bills,” he said.

Instead of retiring Mitchell in 2028, Kentucky Power wants the Kentucky PSC to approve environmental compliance upgrades that would keep it operating through 2040.

In 2021, the Kentucky PSC denied the request. In June, Kentucky Power asked again.

Kentucky Power has cited its capacity needs beyond 2028 for keeping Mitchell running.

Whereas Kentucky’s former attorney general, Daniel Cameron, advised the Kentucky PSC to let the plant close in 2028, his successor, Russell Coleman, has taken the opposite stance.

Kentucky Power serves about 162,000 electricity customers in 20 eastern Kentucky counties. Its customer bills are already among the highest in the region.

The company is also in the process of seeking a 15% rate increase from the Kentucky commission.

Its integrated resource plan, filed earlier this month to the West Virginia PSC, shows the Mitchell Plant operates at a capacity factor of 25%. That’s the lowest of the three West Virginia coal plants owned by Kentucky Power’s parent company, American Electric Power.

Under some scenarios, Mitchell could be partially retired or partially converted to gas by 2032.