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Under New Owner, Pleasants Plant Not Producing Much Power

The California-based company proposed to manufacture graphite for electric vehicle batteries and use the hydrogen byproduct to fuel the power plant.

When Omnis Fuel Technologies took ownership of the Pleasants Power Station in August 2023, it made big promises about converting the facility to run on hydrogen.

The California-based company proposed to manufacture graphite for electric vehicle batteries and use the hydrogen byproduct to fuel the power plant.

A year later, the facility isn’t running on hydrogen, and it’s barely burning any coal.

“No, that plant hasn’t really been running very much,” said Seth Feaster, an energy data analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “On the other hand, West Virginia ratepayers are not spending $3 million a month on an idle plant either.”

The plant has a troubled history.

Until it briefly ceased operations in May 2023, Pleasants had received a $12 million a year state tax break since 2019 to keep it from shutting down.

The Pleasants plant received a $50 million low-interest loan from the West Virginia Economic Development Authority in November.

The Wall Street Journal reported in July that the plant’s application for an $800 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy was rejected.

With the possibility that the plant could go idle last year, state lawmakers passed a resolution encouraging Mon Power to purchase it.

Mon Power proposed to keep the plant in operating mode, but not produce electricity, for 12 months while it studied what to do next. It would have cost Mon Power customers $3 million a month.

State lawmakers from the joint House-Senate energy committee toured Pleasants earlier this month during their interim session in Parkersburg, though the tour was not posted on the legislature’s schedule.

Data from Standard & Poor’s show the plant has operated no more than 52 percent of the time in the past 12 months and in fact was down into the single digits for five of those months — 1 percent in March.

In June, the most recent month of data available, the plant operated at a 35 percent capacity factor. These numbers are low compared with other coal plants in the region.

A request to Omnis Fuel Technologies for comment produced no immediate response.

Mon Power Begins Construction On 3rd Solar Site In State

Mon Power is building a 5.75 megawatt solar facility on 36 acres of former coal ash landfill in Berkeley County.

The company activated its Fort Martin solar facility in January, the state’s largest at 19 megawatts. It is also building one at Rivesville with 5.5 megawatts.

One megawatt is enough to power about 173 households.

“The redevelopment of this site into a clean, renewable energy source is aligned with our commitment to support economic growth in West Virginia as well as our efforts to build a more sustainable future for the communities we serve,” said Dan Rossero, vice president of West Virginia energy generation for Mon Power parent FirstEnergy.

Solar is the fastest growing source of electricity nationwide. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, U.S. solar capacity reached 209 gigawatts in the second quarter.

By comparison, U.S. coal capacity was at 177 gigawatts in April, a decline of nearly half from 2000, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

West Virginia still lags other states in renewable energy development.

Consumer Advocate Says PSC Should Say No To Added Fuel Costs

Appalachian Power’s rates have risen 45 percent in the past five years, the West Virginia Public Service Commission’s Consumer Advocate says.

The electricity rates charged by Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power have been higher than Mon Power and Potomac Edison since 2017 and have only gotten higher.

That’s what the Consumer Advocate Division told the PSC in a case where Appalachian Power is seeking to recover additional fuel costs from its customers.

Appalachian Power wants to charge the average residential electricity customer $2.13 more per month.

The Consumer Advocate has asked the PSC to say no, citing the “unbearable load” already placed on the company’s residential customers.

Appalachian Power is also seeking a base rate increase of 17%, in addition to other, smaller increases.

The consumer advocate says the average Appalachian Power bill has increased from $118 a month in 2019 to $172 today, without the proposed increases.

The rate proposal would raise the average residential bill by $28 a month, bringing it to $200.

The average Mon Power and Potomac Edison residential bill was around $137 last month.

Local governments, school districts and residents have voiced their opposition to the increases.

Meanwhile, Appalachian Power’s three West Virginia coal plants have been operating less than half the time and losing money when they do.

Appalachian Power has said it has too much coal on site at the plants, and sometimes it has burned the coal when not economically justified to draw down the inventory to safer levels.

Appalachian Power Plan Would Raise Industry Costs, Group Says

If the West Virginia Public Service Commission approves the latest Appalachian Power proposal, they will pay nearly 9 cents a kilowatt hour, a 46 percent increase.

Large industrial users of electricity say an Appalachian Power proposal would leave the state at a competitive disadvantage.

Five years ago, West Virginia industrial customers paid about 6 cents a kilowatt hour.

If the West Virginia Public Service Commission approves the latest Appalachian Power proposal, they will pay nearly 9 cents a kilowatt hour, a 46 percent increase. Residential rates would also increase.

The PSC heard testimony this week in an evidentiary hearing on the plan to recover fuel costs from electricity customers.

The PSC approved cost increases for Appalachian Power in January and again last month that will raise rates starting in September.

If the PSC approves the newest request, the West Virginia Energy Users Group says the state will have higher electricity costs than every surrounding state except Maryland.

The state would then rank at 38 out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, the group says, putting the state closer to the most expensive places for electricity.

Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia would all be less expensive.

The statewide average includes Mon Power’s industrial customer rates.

What’s Driving Up The Cost Of Electricity? Group Says It’s Not Renewables

The group specifically cites West Virginia and its near total reliance on coal to supply its power.

Heavy reliance on fossil fuels – coal and natural gas – is driving up electricity prices in many regions of the country.

That’s the conclusion of Energy Innovation Policy and Technology, a nonpartisan research group.

The group specifically cites West Virginia and its near total reliance on coal to supply its power. Coal-fired plants are aging and more expensive to maintain, while coal itself has a harder time competing with gas and renewables, particularly wind and solar.

The state depends on coal for 89 percent of its electricity, the highest percentage of any state.

Other states that have gone big on gas have found themselves paying for the volatility of gas prices in a global market, the group concluded, as well as extreme weather events that have squeezed supplies.

Electricity rates increased the fastest in West Virginia, California, Indiana and New England, the group found, though the reasons varied across states and regions.

In West Virginia, the group’s report cited the state’s coal fleet, most of which is at least 50 years old. The Public Service Commission has allowed the state’s dominant electric utilities, Mon Power and Appalachian Power, to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on environmental compliance upgrades at the plants.

The upgrades, paid for by electricity customers, will keep the plants running beyond 2028, possibly until 2040.

Meanwhile, the group says, the cost of wind, solar and battery storage has decreased and would be a more economically reasonable choice.

Supreme Court Hands EPA Rule’s Opponents A Temporary Victory

In a 5-4 decision Thursday, the court paused what’s known as the Good Neighbor Rule, an effort by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to limit nitrogen oxide, which forms smog and can drift into neighboring states.

The U.S. Supreme Court has put a federal rule limiting ozone pollution from power plants on hold, for now.

West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana led the challenge to the rule. The Supreme Court’s decision means the rule’s fate could be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey argued that the rule could lead to power plant closures that would threaten the reliability of the electricity grid.

Indeed, the rule, should it survive, would require coal-burning plants to use the best available system to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions.

West Virginia has one plant, Mon Power’s Fort Martin Power Station, that currently lacks such technology. It is estimated to cost $500 million to make the upgrade.

Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberal justices in dissent.