By Mike Tony
Charleston Gazette-Mail
Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power have asked West Virginia utility regulators to approve a nearly $200 million project to save a failing coal-fired power plant in Marshall County — and increase customer bills to pay for it.
The American Electric Power-controlled companies filed an application with the state Public Service Commission Wednesday for approval of a $191 million project to replace what they say has been a cracking-plagued cooling tower at the Wheeling Power-co-owned Mitchell Power Plant near Moundsville.
The utilities say their request, if approved, would require more than $1 a month extra from customers and position the 55-year-old plant to keep operating beyond its current lifespan slated to end in 2040.
The companies, which serve 25 West Virginia counties, intend to construct a new mechanical draft cooling tower for their Mitchell plant unit 2, replacing the existing cooling tower and then partially demolishing the existing one.
The Mitchell units have been two of the most uneconomic in an increasingly less productive Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power coal-fired fleet in recent years, operating at capacity factors far below the PSC’s desired 69% capacity factor for them.
Capacity factor is a measure of how often a plant runs at full capacity. Coalfired plant capacity factors in West Virginia and throughout the country have dropped significantly amid the industry’s longterm decline, reflecting what energy experts say has been an uneconomic outlook for coal power.
The companies’ 50% share of these estimated costs will be approximately $95.5 million, which would comprise the West Virginia jurisdictional share of the project cost. The plant is co-owned by fellow AEP affiliate Kentucky Power.
The project cost would be recovered through Appalachian Power’s and Wheeling Power’s Environmental and New Generation surcharge.
Although Appalachian Power doesn’t own or operate the Mitchell plant, it is a co-applicant with Wheeling Power because it has common rates with the latter.
Unit 2 has a nameplate capacity, or maximum rated output, of 790 megawatts,and the plant has a total nameplate capacity of 1,560 megawatts. If the project is approved as proposed, the impact on an average monthly bill by customer categories would be:
■ $1.22 (0.69%) for residential
■ $3.27 (0.69%) for commercial
■ $2,870 (0.9%) for industrial
■ $5,377 (0.87%) for special contracts
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Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power reported that the cooling tower has areas of surface irregularities and deformations of a concrete shell, weakening the structure.
Plant personnel first observed structural anomalies in April 2016, according to the companies’ filing. The companies say the observation triggered an initial structural engineering evaluation that determined the deformations likely originated years earlier.
The assessment also revealed other surface cracking and deterioration related to the anomalies, per the filing, which said a monitoring and inspection system resulted from a subsequent third-party engineering analysis.
The companies want project construction to begin in November 2026 to address the structural needs of the cooling tower in what they said would be a timely manner.
A project to reinforce the structure of the Mitchell unit 2 cooling tower began in 2024, but by July 2025, construction contractors found more cracking and deterioration that would require additional work, the utilities said in their filing. That additional work caused “schedule slippage” and cost escalations, the companies said.
Like its counterpart attached to unit 1, the unit 2 cooling tower is a reinforced concrete-and-steel structure 376 feet tall with a 288-foot diameter.
Continued use of the cooling tower in its current state is not an option, the utilities judged. The coolingtower project is scheduled for completion in 2029, with the tower expected to go into service in the second quarter of 2028.
The companies reported submitting a grant application in November 2025 to the Department of Energy for funding the agency set aside per a pro-coal industry executive order from President Donald Trump that included $350 million for coal power unit recommissioning and retrofitting.
But the companies said they were notified last week they did not receive an award from Trump’s DOE. The utilities said their chosen project option would be far cheaper than retiring the unit and two other options: expanding and extending the shell reinforcement project, and reducing the height of the existing cooling tower and continuing with a reduced scope of exterior shell reinforcement.
Firm said it had 3 weeks to complete study
Based on the current design, the companies say permits to be required will include a new operating permit under the federal Clean Air Act, a new stormwater discharge pollution permit, an updated water pollution control permit and a new floodplain permit.
The air permit is expected to be a minor modification and take six to nine months to obtain from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, according to a project feasibility study prepared for AEP by global energy and chemicals consultingfirm Worley.
Just one option was selected for evaluation for the study, Worley said in that study. Worley attributed that limit due to having just three weeks to complete the study.
Worley said a small portion of piping would pass through an area designated as part of the Ohio River floodplain, though it added the area is well above the floodplain elevation.
Kentucky PSC says it had to choose ‘least bad’ option
Kentucky Power made a similar filing with the Kentucky Public Service Commission Tuesday seeking approval for the project.
The company has 162,000 customers in 20 Kentucky counties.
In that filing, the company estimated a monthly increase of $4.59, or 2.3%, in the total bill for the average residential customer using 1,206 kilowatt-hours per month once the tower project is fully in service.
The Kentucky PSC on Dec. 30 reluctantly issued an order approving continued capital investments in Kentucky Power’s 50% share of the Mitchell plant, backtracking on that commission’s 2021 rejection of the company’s request to extend the joint ownership arrangement beyond 2028.
The Kentucky PSC had ruled then that a new power plant would be less expensive than adding environmental compliance upgrades necessary to keep the plant operating after 2028.
The West Virginia PSC had ruled in 2021 that Wheeling Power would bear the full cost of $448.3 million in upgrades for the Mitchell plant and Appalachian Power’s coal-fired John E. Amos and Mountaineer plants in Putnam and Mason counties, green-lighting a burden of nearly $22 million from customers in Kentucky and Virginia, which shares jurisdiction over the latter two plants.
The Sierra Club rejected the settlement approved by the Kentucky PSC enabling the continued capital investments in Kentucky Power’s share of the Mitchell plant.
In its Dec. 30 order, the Kentucky PSC attributed its decision to “the failure of Kentucky Power to correctly plan for and actually acquirealternative resources.”
The Kentucky PSC noted concern that there were flaws in Kentucky Power’s methodology.
“Kentucky Power’s analysis was not conducted with the level of rigor that the Commission would expect to see for a decision of this magnitude,” the Kentucky PSC said in its order.
The Kentucky PSC found that in the three years since it denied the request to continue investing in the plant, Kentucky Power “failed to propose a feasible plan for new generation” or capacity contracts to meet capacity requirements.
“We are now forced to either permit continued investment in a 54-year-old plant in another state or allow Kentucky Power customers to be at the mercy of a volatile market,” the order states. “Neither option is good for customers and we are forced to choose the least bad.”
A 2023 study by San Francisco climate policy firm Energy Innovation LLC estimated that 99% of coal plants nationwide are more expensive to run than replacing their generation capacity with either new solar or new wind.
Energy Innovation said in that report that replacing the Mitchell plant with local solar and battery storage would be roughly 50% cheaper and provide the reliability the West Virginia PSC sought through its Mitchell plant status quo-extending decision while saving ratepayers hundreds of dollars every year.
Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power bills have swollen over time amid the companies’ reliance on their aging, volatile fuel cost-prone coal-fired plants.
The companies’ average monthly residential cost increased 207% from $55.28 in 2005 to $169.69 in 2024, according to PSC data.
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