Mon Power Customers Are Paying For Costly Contract, Analysis Shows

Mon Power customers paid $10.3 million more for electricity than the market price from the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation from 2018 to 2024.

That’s according to an analysis by Devi Glick of Synapse Energy Economics. Glick’s analysis backed up West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s reporting that Appalachian power customers overpaid $328 million for OVEC power during those seven years.

Mon Power, through its parent company, First Energy, owns a small share – less than half a percent – of the OVEC plants, which are in Ohio and Indiana.

A contract in which First Energy shares the power produced by the OVEC plants with other major electric utilities extends to 2040.

The plants were originally built in 1955 to provide power to a federal uranium enrichment facility in southern Ohio.

Will Boye, a Mon Power spokesman, said the plants provide value at a time of decreasing generation and growing demand.

“Agreements like this – where power prices are locked in – help protect customers from rising energy costs,” he said.

First Energy had a major role in a public corruption scandal in Ohio, where the fallout continues. 

The company’s former CEO and senior vice president await trial in January on bribery charges.

Both are charged with paying $61 million in bribes in exchange for the bailout of two nuclear power plants, as well as the OVEC plants. 

Public anger is growing as electricity costs have increased in West Virginia and many other states.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission last month ordered Appalachian Power to keep its rates the same. The company had sought a $250 million increase.

Ohio lawmakers in May repealed a subsidy for the OVEC plants that was part of the corruption scandal that sent the state’s former House speaker to prison for 20 years. 

Michigan regulators last year rejected a bid by Indiana-Michigan Power to continue charging Michigan customers for losses at the OVEC plants.

American Electric Power, the parent company of Appalachian Power and Indiana-Michigan Power, owns the largest share of the OVEC plants.