Coal news and updates

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) on Aug. 23 rattled American Electric Power’s (AEP’s) plans to operate the 2.9-GW John Amos and 1.3-GW Mountaineer coal power plants through 2040 when it partly denied cost recovery for expenses that the West Virginia plants need to comply with the federal Steam Electric Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) rule.

 

The SCC on Monday approved a $27.44 million Virginia revenue requirement for the first year of an environmental rate adjustment clause (E-RAC)—a rider that recovers expenses from AEP’s Virginia customers associated with federal rules regulating the disposal of coal ash at the two plants in West Virginia. But while the SCC moved to approve AEP’s recovery of costs related to the federal Coal Combustion and Residuals (CCR), the commission denied about $4.2 million of expenses AEP had proposed for projects that would help the plants comply with the ELG rule.

 

Appalachian Power, the AEP subsidiary that owns the two plants, warned in its last 10-Q filing, dated July 22, that denial of ELG investment recovery could cause the company to close the generating facilities by 2028—more than a decade earlier than their planned retirement in 2040. The two plants represent around two-thirds of the subsidiary’s generating fleet.

 

In a statement to POWER this week, however, Appalachia Power said that a number of options still exist for the two plants, given that regulators in West Virginia recently approved cost recovery at CCR and ELG investments at both plants. “Our next steps will be to evaluate our options in light of those orders, determine the best path forward to meet the resource needs in each state, and return to the commissions if necessary for consideration of our updated costs and plans,” a spokesperson said.

 

 

Source :https://www.powermag.com/regulators-rattle-aeps-plans-to-operate-4-2-gw-of-coal-power-through-2040/