Appalachian Power said it can convert two of its coal-burning plants in West Virginia to 40 percent gas by 2030, 100 percent gas by 2030, or shut both down by 2032.
Appalachian Power said it can convert two of its coal-burning plants in West Virginia to 40 percent gas by 2030, 100 percent gas by 2030, or shut both down by 2032.
The greenhouse gas rule is being challenged in court and could be scrapped by the EPA in a new Trump administration.
The company has ruled out carbon capture and storage as unworkable, as outlined in answers provided to the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) as part of its application to raise base rates.
“CCS has not been commercially demonstrated and is not expected to be developed in time to be a viable option,” wrote Robert Jessee, Appalachian Power’s vice president of generating assets. “Therefore, to comply with the GHG rule the Companies must either convert their existing coal-fired plants to gas or shut the plants down.”
Jessee offered no cost estimate for converting the John Amos and Mountaineer plants to gas, but said they would need “significant upgrades.”
Jessee also discussed compliance options for the EPA’s updated rule on wastewater treatment. He said the rule would require the installation of a new system at both plants at a cost of $120 million each.
A 100 percent gas conversion or a plant retirement would not require wastewater treatment.
In other testimony, Appalachian Power said the average residential user pays $175.38 a month for 1,000 kilowatt hours. The company is currently seeking a 14 percent rate increase.
The EPA has proposed to approve the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s application to issue permits for and regulate carbon storage wells.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment and holding public hearings on carbon dioxide injection wells.
The federal agency will hold four public hearings throughout the day on Monday, Dec. 30 at the Marriott Town Center in Charleston. Those who wish to speak will need to register by Dec. 23.
Members of the public can also submit comments to the EPA directly by mail or the Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov. The submission deadline is Dec. 30.
Such storage wells, known as Class VI wells, will enable carbon-intensive industries to capture and inject their emissions underground.
The technique could be used for coal- and gas-fired power plants and for using gas to produce hydrogen.
Appalachian Power is at least considering a conversion of two West Virginia power plants from coal to natural gas.
Appalachian Power is at least considering a conversion of two West Virginia power plants from coal to natural gas.
That’s what a company executive told the Virginia State Corporation Commission in recent written testimony. The John Amos and Mountaineer plants in West Virginia supply power to Appalachian Power’s Virginia customers and burn a lot of coal produced in the region.
But the region also produces a large amount of natural gas, which has become the preferred fuel for generating electricity nationwide and in the states surrounding West Virginia.
Robert Jessee, Appalachian Power’s vice president of generating assets, told the Virginia commission in August that gas was a “viable option” to help the plants meet new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions requirements, should they survive legal challenges.
“The company is currently exploring the compliance options available under the new EPA regulations,” Jessee said. “Converting the units to natural gas, or refueling them, is currently a viable option. It is my opinion that these plants are potential candidates for refueling, and that there are not any reasons known to me at this time that would preclude this option.”
In addition to regulatory changes, the economics of generating electricity have shifted in favor of natural gas and renewables, and away from coal.
Seth Feaster, an energy analyst for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, says such conversions are common and not difficult to do.
“These kinds of conversions have been done all over the place,” he said, “and they’re common enough that I think that it’s not a big reach for this plant, or these both of the plants, to actually get that done in a relatively short period of time, once they get approvals.”
No plant in West Virginia has been converted from coal to gas, but it has happened in nearby states, and within the territory of American Electric Power, Appalachian Power’s parent.
That includes the Big Sandy plant in eastern Kentucky and the Clinch River plant in Virginia. The West Virginia PSC approved the Clinch River conversion in 2014.
Charlotte Lane, chairman of the West Virginia PSC, said her three-member commission had not been advised by Appalachian Power that a conversion was under consideration for the Amos and Mountaineer plants.
Lane said the company would need the commission’s approval for a conversion of the plants.
“It is likely that those facilities would require extraordinary engineering and significant cost,” she said in a written statement.
Karen Wissing, an Appalachian Power spokeswoman, said the company “continues to look for the most efficient options to power progress and business growth.”
That may or may not involve converting coal plants to natural gas, she said.
“Before this can even be considered,” she said in an email, “we need further exploration and coordination with regulators to determine if it would be in the best interest of customers and the state.”
Reliability Questions
One sure opponent of any attempt to convert the plants: West Virginia’s coal industry. The state remains the nation’s second-leading coal producer besides Wyoming and its power plants are still a big customer.
The coal industry has deep historical and cultural resonance in the state, and many elected officials are committed to its survival. Gov. Jim Justice amassed his wealth in the coal business and has been one of its biggest defenders.
Chris Hamilton, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said his organization had not been made aware of Appalachian Power’s Virginia testimony.
He said the proposal would have negative economic consequences for the state’s coal producing areas.
“Converting Amos and Mountaineer to gas would effectively kill thousands of mining jobs throughout West Virginia along with hundreds of rail and river transportation and coal handling jobs,” Hamilton said in an email. “The net effect would also be to fuel these two coal facilities with less reliable energy from possible out of state sources and create added retrofit costs to be shouldered by consumers.”
The industry and its allies have made a steady pitch for coal’s reliability: If you always have a supply ready on site, the plants can run when they’re needed.
Gas, on the other hand, is supplied by pipeline and could be vulnerable to disruptions.
Cutting Emissions
Yet thanks to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, West Virginia has an abundant supply. It is the nation’s fourth-leading producer, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“West Virginia is in a pretty enviable position here,” said Rob Jennings, vice president of natural gas markets for the American Petroleum Institute. “And so you’ve got the gas you need right there.”
Helping meet emissions requirements works in favor of gas, Jennings said.
“When you switch from coal to natural gas in a power plant, you reduce your emissions by about 60 percent – between 50 and 60 percent, depending on the efficiency of the coal plant and the efficiency of the new gas plant,” he said. “So that’s really the biggest benefit.”
In addition to cutting carbon emissions, gas plants produce no sulfur dioxide, which can form acid rain and must be removed with devices called scrubbers. It emits less nitrogen oxide, which forms smog. And it avoids the disposal costs of coal ash, which can contaminate groundwater if not handled properly.
Gas, though, still emits carbon dioxide. The production and transportation of gas emits methane, an even more powerful planet-warming gas than CO2.
Gas as a substitute for coal generates some opposition where coal has a lot of support, Jennings said.
“But I think maybe the larger place where you tend to see resistance to this is from the environmental side,” he said.
Rising Costs
If EPA’s rules prevail, existing coal and new natural gas plants will have to capture 90 percent of their CO2 emissions within a decade, or shut down.
Environmental groups would prefer to see Appalachian Power’s coal plants retired and replaced with renewables like wind and solar, and battery storage.
Sooner or later, the company will have to make a decision on the future of its West Virginia coal fleet.
Appalachian Power’s West Virginia coal plants, which include Amos, Mountaineer and the Mitchell plant, half owned by Kentucky Power and Wheeling Power, have operated less than half the time in recent months and have lost money when they did run.
Appalachian Power executives testified to the West Virginia PSC over the summer that the plants had too much coal on site, so it was burned to manage the supply, even when it was not economically justified.
The plants are aging, and that increases the cost of operating and maintaining them. Mountaineer began operating in 1980 and Amos and Mitchell in the early 1970s.
Feaster says the plants might be at a tipping point, where it becomes more attractive to run them on gas instead of a fuel long associated with the state.
“You may want to support the coal industry in the state, but if it’s going to raise costs for ratepayers,” he said, “then it starts to become an increasingly challenging proposition to come up with the money that supports keeping it a coal plant.”
The 2,900-megawatt John E. Amos power plant is the largest in the state.
Appalachian Power, for now, intends to operate the John Amos and Mountaineer power plants through 2040.
A Virginia utility regulator says Appalachian Power must continue to study the early retirement of two West Virginia coal plants.
Appalachian Power, for now, intends to operate the John Amos and Mountaineer power plants through 2040.
Appalachian Power’s Virginia customers receive power from the Amos and Mountaineer plants.
It had asked Virginia regulators for permission to stop studying if early retirement of the plants could save electricity customers money.
A senior hearing examiner for Virginia’s State Corporation Commission last week said no.
Michael D. Thomas ruled Friday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules on carbon dioxide emissions and wastewater treatment raise questions about the future operating costs of both plants.
The company, as well as the attorneys general of West Virginia and Virginia, have mounted a legal challenge to the EPA rules.
The mounting costs of operating the coal plants has come under scrutiny in both states. A third plant, Mitchell, supplies power to Kentucky and West Virginia customers.
The three plants operate less than half the time, and they lose money when they do, according to recent testimony to the West Virginia Public Service Commission.
The Sierra Club has sued the PSC over its 2021 directive for the plants to operate at least 69 percent of the time. They rarely come close, and few U.S. plants do.
Testimony in a federal court case challenging a more stringent wastewater treatment rule show that Appalachian Power has evaluated the cost of compliance.
Gary Spitznogle, vice president of environmental services for Appalachian Power parent American Electric Power, told the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the rule would force the retirement of Amos and Mountaineer in 2034. If the rule stands, the company would have to make a decision by the end of next year to upgrade the plants at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars or shut them down.
The rule’s opponents have asked the court to block it while it resolves the legal issues.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, for now, has let stand a set of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules West Virginia and other states challenged.
West Virginia’s attorney general has lost the first round in his challenge to the newest federal power plant emissions rules.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, for now, has let stand a set of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules West Virginia and other states challenged.
In a three-page order Friday, the court declined to block rules intended to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing coal-fired power plants and new gas plants.
The court will still consider the case on the merits.
Electric utilities must reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent or close coal plants by 2032. They can achieve the standard by converting the plants to burn gas and hydrogen or by capturing and storing the CO2. Neither technology has yet been proved on a commercial scale.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey was the lead plaintiff in the EPA challenge, which he initiated last month.
In a statement, Morrisey said he plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Our position remains the same: this rule strips the states of important discretion while using technologies that don’t work in the real world,” he said.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline may be finished, but the debate continues on what could power the southeast for decades to come.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline may be finished, but the debate continues on what could power the southeast for decades to come.
One of the pipeline’s biggest potential customers is Duke Energy, which plans to build five natural gas power plants in North and South Carolina over the next 10 years, replacing coal plants that are growing old.
That requires an additional pipeline called MVP Southgate, which would run from the Mountain Valley Pipeline terminus in southern Virginia into North Carolina.
“New natural gas electric generation is required in the Carolinas to keep the companies on track to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050,” wrote Nelson Peeler, Duke Energy Carolinas senior vice president for transmission and fuel supply and policy, in a July 2022 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “Specifically, new natural gas generation is consistent with least cost and reliability objectives to support retirement of aging coal facilities.”
Virginia and North Carolina have not granted the necessary permits. Federal regulators allowed the pipeline’s builder an extra three years to complete it.
The groups and landowners who opposed the Mountain Valley Pipeline have said they’ll shift their focus to MVP Southgate.
“Appalachian Voices will continue to support the communities along the route in any way that we can including monitoring, advocating for emergency management funding and holding the company and agencies accountable,” said Jessica Sims, Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices.
Duke’s gas plants may have difficulty complying with new federal rules on power plant emissions, should those survive legal challenges.
Notably, the West Virginia Coal Association opposed the Mountain Valley Pipeline because of its potential to displace coal at Duke Energy plants.
In a statement last week marking the completion of the pipeline, builder Equitrans Midstream noted the reduction in carbon emissions.
“When used as a replacement fuel for coal-fired electricity generation, natural gas provides reliable power while also reducing carbon emissions by nearly half, helping to meet national and state economic and environmental goals,” the company said.
Duke’s commitment to gas, however, remains controversial because of the potential of the gas plants to operate for decades and the release of methane in the production and transportation of gas. Methane is a far more potent heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide.
Environmental groups and many Democrats have said Duke should rely less on gas and more on solar, wind and battery storage.
Congressional legislation that fast-tracked the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline last year also does not do the same thing for the MVP Southgate project.
And one of the pipeline’s biggest supporters, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, is leaving the Senate at the end of the year.
