On this West Virginia Morning, energy and environment reporter Curtis Tate speaks with Sierra Club Senior Campaign Representative Karan May about the West Virginia Public Service Commission’s recent agreement to allow a plan to keep the Pleasants Power Station from shutting down at the end of May. Consumer and environmental groups, large industrial users and even the PSC’s Consumer Advocate testified against it.
The Dominion Post: If Mon Power buys Pleasants, only the shareholders win (Opinion)
"So when the company makes money the profit all goes to the stockholders and management, but when they lose money (by not investing in new tech) they want bailout cash from 'the little people ?' I don't think so."
The anonymous comment above, submitted to the Public Service Commission in regard to Mon Power purchasing the Pleasants Power Station, sums it up nicely.
PSC Issues Order on Pleasants
On Monday evening, the PSC issued an order regarding the proposal for $3M+/month to be charged to ratepayers to keep paying employees at Pleasants to not generate power. The order did not immediately increase rates, but it ordered Mon Power to keep investigating and will allow it to come back later to ask to be compensated for maintaining the plant.
While there is no immediate rate impact to ratepayers, we are concerned that these proposed charges could potentially be forced onto ratepayers in the very near future.
Many of our concerns about this proposal still remain:
WV ratepayers still don't need Pleasants' power—West Virginia already produces more power than it consumes.
We don't know how much this will cost. It is going to be much more than the $36 million that's been discussed.
Our reliability issues in West Virginia, which are significant, are unrelated to generation.
FirstEnergy’s own witnesses have identified many more costs and liabilities of this proposal.
Part of the order seemed to suggest that it might somehow be appropriate for West Virginia ratepayers to be forced to pay higher bills to ensure generation reliability in other states in the PJM grid. It is not fair to West Virginia families with high energy burdens, many of whom are on fixed incomes, to pay for that. It's also not fair to small businesses who are not politically connected enough to lobby for a special tax break for their businesses, like the Pleasants plant did recently. West Virginians’ reliability challenges will not be fixed by another power plant and PJM has already specifically said that Pleasants can retire without impacting grid reliability.
The next step is a proposed letter of intent (LOI) between the owner of the plant and FirstEnergy, describing an agreement between them that addresses what would be paid by each party. It is imperative that the public have an opportunity to fully vet this agreement between these two out-of-state companies, since it will be West Virginians who will bear the costs of it. The three-week process that the public had to evaluate the current proposal will not be enough. There should be multiple public hearings held near where the affected people actually live and the ability to develop a full record showing whether or not this is a good deal for the people who will have to pay it—West Virginia families and businesses.
The public is clearly opposed to bailing out this plant. Most of the comments in the case were from people opposed to paying higher bills for the bailout.
We hope people continue to stay engaged and make their voices heard throughout this process. We will have the latest updates at energyfreedomwv.org about how to stay engaged.
Charleston Gazette-Mail: PSC greenlights Mon Power, Potomac Edison talks toward Pleasants Power Station takeover, holds off on surcharge approval
By Mike Tony
West Virginia utility regulators have approved Mon Power and Potomac Edison to keep negotiating with the owner of the Pleasants Power Station to stave off a shutdown of the coal-fired plant, withholding approval of a requested $36 million rate hike for now.
The Public Service Commission on Monday issued an order authorizing continued negotiations between the two FirstEnergy utilities and Texas-based plant owner Energy Transition and Environmental Management, known as ETEM.
The PSC found the utilities’ proposal that ratepayers cover costs incurred by keeping the more than four-decade-old plant operable until the utilities decide whether to acquire it reasonable.
MetroNews: PSC tells companies to keep negotiating Pleasants Power Station takeover, but holds off on surcharge
By Brad McElhinny
West Virginia’s Public Service Commission ordered power companies to go ahead with negotiating what it would take to acquire the Pleasants Power Station, which is set to shut down in a little more than a month.
But in an order filed Monday afternoon, commissioners left open the question of whether the power companies could institute a surcharge on ratepayers for the costs of continuing to employ workers and keep the plant operational.
…
“But we are disappointed that at least by implication the Commission seems to agree that the costs and risks of the ongoing evaluation of Pleasants are too great for First Energy shareholders to bear, but are perfectly acceptable to foist upon ratepayers who have already borne nearly a quarter billion dollars in rate increases in a little over a year, including manufacturing and industry responsible for thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in payroll, tax, and other economic contributions to the state,” said Derrick Williamson, executive director of the Energy Users Group.
…
WV News: Public weighs in at West Virginia PSC hearing for Pleasants Power Station plan
By Steven Allen Adams
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — On the eve of an evidentiary hearing to decide whether ratepayers will have to shell out more money as part of a plan to keep Pleasants Power Station idling, supporters and detractors of the plan made their voices heard Thursday.
…
Opponents of the plan who spoke Thursday said it was unfair to place the burden of keeping the plant functional on the backs of ratepayers who receive no direct benefit from the plant. Opponents also cited the need to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources of energy.
“I’m here to state my opposition to the acquisition of Pleasants Power Station because of the impact it will likely have on my rates and my monthly bill,” said Sally Roberts Wilson, a Mon Power customer from Morgantown. “West Virginia citizens should not be required to bear the costs. ... it will become a choice of food, freezing or having a heat stroke in the summer months.”
…