Kentucky Power, Industrial Customers Reach Agreement On Mitchell Plant

This story was originally published by WEKU.

Kentucky Power has reached a settlement agreement with the state’s industrial customers over a power plant in West Virginia. Not everyone is on board, though.

The settling parties want the Kentucky Public Service Commission to approve Kentucky Power’s proposal to preserve its half of the Mitchell plant beyond 2028.

Kentucky Power and the Kentucky Industrial Users Coalition signed the agreement on the future of the Mitchell power plant. The office of Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman did not sign the agreement but will not oppose it. The Sierra Club did not agree to the settlement.

The Sierra Club’s expert witness, Devi Glick, filed written testimony earlier this month that investing in Mitchell is not in the best interest of electricity customers.

Sarah Nusbaum, a spokeswoman for Kentucky Power, says the settling parties agree that Mitchell is the best option.

Kentucky Power serves about 165,000 customers in 20 eastern Kentucky counties. The company is also seeking a 15% rate increase.

Glick testified that the Mitchell investment would not be the best choice for customers, in part because one of its concrete cooling towers requires repair or replacement.

She said the plant could be converted from coal to natural gas at a lower cost.

In a rebuttal filed the same day as the settlement agreement, company witness Alex Vaughan testified that Mitchell would still need the cooling tower if it converted to gas, in part or whole.

Mitchell, which began operating in 1971, runs the least of the three American Electric Power coal plants in West Virginia. AEP’s 2025 Integrated Resource Plan shows it operates at a 25% capacity factor, lower than the 40% average in the PJM region, which includes Kentucky Power.

It’s not public knowledge how much Kentucky Power would need to spend to fix Mitchell’s cooling tower. The cost estimates are redacted in the company’s testimony as well as Glick’s.

However, the company said it plans to apply for a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help pay for the repair or replacement.

The Trump administration has made $625 million available to preserve coal-fired generation.

In 2021, the Kentucky PSC rejected Kentucky Power’s plans to invest in Mitchell beyond 2028. At the time, then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron told the commission the plant should retire.

Among the other reasons Cameron cited: Mitchell employs no Kentucky workers and pays no property taxes to any Kentucky county.

It does, however, burn coal produced by Alliance Resource Partners, owned by Joe and Kelly Craft. Cameron beat Kelly Craft in the 2023 Republican primary for governor, but then lost to incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat.

Cameron is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2026 and appears to have backtracked on his earlier position on the Mitchell plant.

The Kentucky PSC will have a hearing in Frankfort on Tuesday to consider the current case.

Correction: This story has been updated to say Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office will not oppose the settlement agreement, but was not a signing party to it.

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This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKU Public Radio in Kentucky and NPR.