The chair of the Kentucky Public Service Commission asked Kentucky Power executives to explain to electricity customers why they need to pay for a coal plant in West Virginia.
Kentucky Power is seeking approval to charge its electricity customers for maintaining its half of the Mitchell power plant beyond 2028.
The Kentucky PSC already approved a surcharge for the company and will soon consider a rate increase on top of the Mitchell case.
PSC Chair Angie Hatton previously represented eastern Kentucky in the state legislature. She asked Tanner Wolffram, Kentucky Power’s director of regulatory services, what electricity customers would get in return for paying more.
“I understand you need capacity, Hatton said. “That’s not disputed at all. But where’s the bright spot? Show, tell me, tell your ratepayers.”
Wolffram said Kentucky Power has not sought to recover all the costs it could from ratepayers.
“To our customers,” he said. “I would just tell you we’re doing everything we can to identify ways to save money and make positive impacts on your bills.”
Wolffram and others were questioned about Mitchell’s low capacity factor, its excess coal inventory, and a concrete cooling tower that will need to be repaired or replaced to keep the plant operating.
A Sierra Club attorney asked Joshua Snodgrass, Mitchell’s plant manager, if the plant could continue to operate safely through 2028.
Snodgrass said yes.
“I think during that duration, we would probably be fine,” he said.
The Sierra Club offered written testimony that converting the plant from coal to natural gas would be a better option for Kentucky Power customers after 2028.
Hatton observed that Mitchell, near Moundsville, West Virginia, is 54 years old. It also employs no Kentucky workers and pays no property taxes to Kentucky, she said.
None of the commission’s three current members were on it when the PSC declined in 2021 to allow Kentucky Power to invest in Mitchell beyond 2028.
