The Kentucky Public Service Commission should reject Kentucky Power’s plan to keep its half of the Mitchell plant past 2028.
That’s what Devi Glick, an energy analyst with Synapse Energy Economics, told the commission in written testimony filed late last week.
Kentucky Power originally told the PSC that investing in Mitchell was the most cost-effective option for its customers. However, it told the commission last month that the plant would require extensive repair or replacement of one of its two concrete cooling towers.
Glick testified that converting the plant from coal to natural gas would be less expensive than fixing the cooling tower and would avoid other potential environmental costs.
Kentucky Power co-owns Mitchell, in Marshall County, West Virginia, with Wheeling Power. Both are subsidiaries of American Electric Power.
In 2021, the Kentucky commission rejected Kentucky Power’s bid to keep its half of Mitchell past 2028. The West Virginia Public Service Commission then allowed Wheeling Power to pay for the entire project and recover the cost from its electricity customers.
Kentucky Power came back to the Kentucky PSC earlier this year seeking approval again, this time with the support of Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman.
Coleman’s predecessor, Daniel Cameron, recommended in 2021 that the plant be retired. Cameron is a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in 2026.
In her written testimony, Glick faulted Kentucky Power for comparing the cost of repairing Mitchell’s cooling tower with building new gas generation but not with converting the existing plant to gas.
Glick’s earlier calculations revealed the excess costs of two coal plants, one in Ohio and the other in Indiana, for Appalachian Power and Louisville Gas & Electric, and Kentucky Utilities electricity customers.
As reported by the Appalachia-Midsouth Newsroom, Appalachian Power customers paid $328 million more than necessary for electricity from the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation from 2018 to 2024.
LG&E and KU customers paid nearly $168 million more than necessary for OVEC power in those seven years.
Both utilities are locked into a long-term power purchase agreement with OVEC through 2040.
Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities is a financial supporter of WEKU.
