FirstEnergy to Deactivate Pleasants Coal Power Plant in 2019, W. Va.
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Ohio-based electric utility FirstEnergy plans to deactivate the 1.3GW coal-fired Pleasants Power Station in West Virginia in 2019, after failing to get regulatory approvals for a proposed sale of the power plant.
In March 2017, Mon Power, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy had submitted a plan seeking regulatory approval to buy the power plant, located along the Ohio River in Willow Island. According to FirstEnergy, the acquisition would have addressed an estimated 10-year energy capacity shortfall and resulted in lower electric bills for customers.
However, last month, the proposal was rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The proposal did get an approval from the Public Service Commission of West Virginia, but came along with a number of significant conditions.
FirstEnergy said that the conditions put up by the public utilities commission and the FERC rejection made the acquisition proposal infeasible.
The company said that the Pleasants power plant will either be sold or shut down on January 1, 2019.
FirstEnergy President and CEO Charles E. Jones said: “Closing Pleasants is a very difficult choice because of the talented employees dedicated to reliable operation of the station and the communities who have supported the facility for many years. But the recent federal and West Virginia decisions leave FirstEnergy no reasonable option but to expeditiously move forward with deactivation of the plant.
“We will continue to pursue opportunities to sell the plant while planning for deactivation.”
FirstEnergy’s subsidiary Allegheny Energy Supply has notified the regional transmission organization PJM Interconnection (PJM) of its plan to deactivate the coal power plant.
About 190 employees are likely to be impacted by the decision to cease operations at the plant which meets the power consumption needs of around 1.3 million homes.
The coal power plant’s deactivation, following nearly 40 years of power generation, will depend on the outcome of a review from PJM to look into any reliability impacts resulting from its shutdown.
Featuring two coal-fired units of 650MW each, the Pleasants coal power station was completed at a cost of $677m after its second unit entered into operations in 1980.
The possible closure of the Pleasants power plant is part of FirstEnergy’s plans to either sell or shut down 2,471MW of power generation operated by it across Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Source: Energy Business Review
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