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Mon Power, Potomac Edison Ask PSC For $207 Million Rate Increase

The average residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours per month would see a 15 percent increase, or about $18.

Mon Power and Potomac Edison, both subsidiaries of Ohio-based FirstEnergy, have asked the West Virginia Public Service Commission to raise rates by $207 million.

In a statement Thursday, the companies said the increase will support improvements to the grid, reliability in rural areas, storm repairs and higher operating and maintenance costs due to inflation.

“While strict cost management and careful planning have allowed us to keep our West Virginia electric rates the lowest among the state’s investor-owned electric companies,” Jim Myers, president of FirstEnergy’s West Virginia operations, said in a statement, “an adjustment is required to keep pace with rising prices and allow us to continue making critical electric system enhancements.”

The average residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours per month would see a 15 percent increase, or about $18.

The companies are seeking an agreement with the owner of the Pleasants Power Station to keep it in operating condition that would include a monthly surcharge. The plant was scheduled for deactivation on Thursday.

Emmett Pepper, policy director for Energy Efficient West Virginia, which has criticized the Pleasants surcharge, said Mon Power and Potomac Edison Rates have gone up more than 70 percent since 2007.

“In order to help customers deal with these continued proposed rate hikes,” he said, “ratepayers need to be empowered to address energy costs by meeting their needs through more efficient buildings, generating their own power, and having battery backup for outages.”

Mon Power and Potomac Edison serve about one million customers in West Virginia and Maryland.

PSC Approves Proposal To Keep Pleasants Power Station From Closing

If an agreement is reached, Mon Power ratepayers will pay a $3 million a month surcharge to keep the plant’s 146 employees working and the plant in operating condition.

West Virginia utility regulators approved Mon Power’s proposal to save a power plant that was slated to shut down next month.

Mon Power will negotiate with the current owner of the Pleasants Power Station to potentially purchase the 1,300-megawatt facility.

If an agreement is reached, Mon Power ratepayers will pay a $3 million a month surcharge to keep the plant’s 146 employees working and the plant in operating condition.

However, it will not generate electricity. And the Mon Power proposal is only an interim solution.

The 44-year-old plant was supposed to shut down at the end of May. State and local leaders, plant workers and the coal industry pushed hard to prevent its closure.

Officials from Mon Power parent FirstEnergy told the Public Service Commission last week that Pleasants needs at least $500 million in upgrades to meet current federal environmental rules.

The PSC asked the parties to provide an update on their negotiations in 30 days.

Pleasants Or Fort Martin? Mon Power May Have To Choose Just One

The company has testified to the Public Service Commission that it’s weighing whether to purchase Pleasants or upgrade Fort Martin.

The debate over the Pleasants Power Station isn’t just about the future of one power plant.

It’s about two.

Though Mon Power has offered a plan to potentially keep the Pleasants Power Station from closing, it’s been clear about one thing: It does not intend to operate three power plants in West Virginia.

Mon Power already operates the Harrison Power Station in Harrison County and the Fort Martin Power Station in Monongalia County.

It doesn’t really need Pleasants. But the company has testified to the Public Service Commission that it’s weighing whether to purchase Pleasants or upgrade Fort Martin.

Fort Martin is one of the state’s oldest power plants. It lacks an emissions control technology called SCR, which reduces nitrogen oxide.

Company officials have said it would cost about $500 million to install SCR at Fort Martin.

Pleasants has SCR. But as Dave Pinter, director of business development for Mon Power parent company FirstEnergy, told the PSC last week, Pleasants needs other improvements.

“In our modeling, we have a similar-sized number for the retrofits to Pleasants,” he told the PSC in an evidentiary hearing on Friday.

The wastewater treatment and coal ash disposal systems at Pleasants would have to be upgraded to meet federal standards. Among other items, Pinter said the plant needs some boiler work and a landfill expansion.

“There’s a fair amount of deferred items that have gone on in that plant that need to be rectified, and there’s … capital is going to need to be spent,” he said.

The PSC will decide this week whether to approve Mon Power’s request to impose a $3 million a month surcharge on ratepayers so the plant can be kept in operating condition past its planned shutdown at the end of May.

Whether Mon Power ultimately decides to purchase Pleasants or upgrade Fort Martin, it will again come back to the PSC to ask ratepayers for hundreds of millions of dollars more to make those upgrades.

Pleasants Power Station’s Owner, Energy Harbor, To Be Sold To Vistra

Vistra only wants Energy Harbor’s three nuclear power plants, two in Ohio and one in Pennsylvania.

A Texas-based utility is buying the company that owns a West Virginia coal plant, but the plant is not part of the sale.

Vistra Corp. announced Monday it will purchase Ohio-based Energy Harbor for more than $3 billion.

Energy Harbor owns two coal plants, one in Ohio and the Pleasants Power Station in Pleasants County.

However, neither of the two coal plants are part of the proposed transaction.

“Vistra will not acquire Energy Harbor’s legacy conventional generation fleet,” Vistra’s statement said.

Vistra only wants Energy Harbor’s three nuclear power plants, two in Ohio and one in Pennsylvania.

Pleasants and Ohio’s W.H. Sammis power plant are scheduled to shut down this year.

Pleasants will close at the end of May unless a buyer steps forward. FirstEnergy’s Mon Power is currently evaluating whether to purchase the Pleasants plant.

Sierra Club: Harrison County Coal Plant Among The Nation’s Deadliest

Mon Power’s Harrison Power Station in Harrison County, is one of 17 deadliest in the country, contributing to 122 premature deaths a year because of particulate matter.

This story was updated with a statement from FirstEnergy.

A West Virginia power plant was identified by the Sierra Club as one of the nation’s deadliest.

According to a Sierra Club report, Mon Power’s Harrison Power Station in Harrison County is one of the 17 deadliest in the country, contributing to 122 premature deaths a year because of particulate matter.

The plant produces 1,984 megawatts of electricity. Its two units became operational in 1973 and 1974. According to Mon Power, Harrison is equipped with scrubbers that remove 98 percent of sulfur dioxide. The Sierra Club says particulate matter, or soot, can travel hundreds of miles.

West Virginia coal plants contribute to 335 deaths a year nationwide, according to the report, but just 20 in West Virginia.

The Sierra Club’s report identifies Mon Power parent FirstEnergy and Appalachian Power parent AEP as two of the biggest polluters from power plants, contributing to 181 and 129 premature deaths a year, respectively.

In a statement, FirstEnergy said the Harrison plant “is equipped with the best available technology to control emissions and complies with all its permits.“

Harpers Ferry Enters Agreement With FirstEnergy To Support Statewide Solar Farm Construction

Harpers Ferry has entered an agreement with electric utilities Mon Power and Potomac Edison to help support the construction of solar panel sites statewide.

The town agreed to purchase a subscription of Solar Renewable Energy Credits equal to its streetlight and town hall energy usage, meant to support five sites owned by parent company FirstEnergy.

These include solar farms built on a 26-acre reclaimed ash disposal site in Berkeley County; a 51-acre site in Hancock County; a 27-acre retired ash disposal site in Marion County; a 95-acre site in Monongalia County and a 44-acre reclaimed strip mine property in Tucker County. All together, they’re expected to generate 50 megawatts of solar power across the state.

“Support of this solar initiative is good governance, and municipal, county and state government entities should lead by example,” Harpers Ferry Mayor Gregory Vaughn said in FirstEnergy release. The decision made by the town council to go forward with the agreement was unanimous.

The decision by FirstEnergy to focus their attention on renewable energy in West Virginia also comes after Senate Bill 583 was passed by state legislators in 2020, allowing for utilities companies to operate up to 200 megawatts worth of solar facilities for economic development purposes.

The utility is currently waiting for final approval from the state’s Public Service Commission, as well as similar commitments from other municipalities and customers, to begin construction of these sites.

Conditional approval for the project was granted by the PSC late last year, with construction expected to be completed by 2025.