The federal government has awarded a grant to a coal plant in Ohio that sends electricity to customers in Kentucky and loses money.
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $175 million to seven coal plants in four states last week, including the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation plant in Cheshire, Ohio.
The Kyger Creek plant was built in 1955, and data show it is no longer profitable. Yet its owners, including Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, continue to rely on its power.
Seth Feaster, an energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, says the grant puts taxpayers on the hook for the plant.
“And so it starts to raise the question of how much money has to be poured into these plants, these OVEC plants, in order to make them viable and competitive,” Feaster said.
A story by the Appalachia-Midsouth news hub last year found that LG&E and KU customers paid for $167 million in OVEC losses from 2018 to 2024.
Customers of Appalachian Power in West Virginia and Virginia had to cover even bigger losses of $328 million over those seven years, a West Virginia Public Broadcasting story found.
Further, the OVEC plant in Ohio, and another in Indiana, were at the center of the biggest public corruption scandal in Ohio history.
The former speaker of the Ohio House and the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party were tried and convicted for accepting bribes in exchange for passing a bill bailing out the plants.
Facing trial, the former chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Ohio died by suicide.
Two former utility executives are awaiting trial. Last year, Ohio lawmakers repealed the bill, known as HB6.
Two companies with ownership stakes in OVEC – American Electric Power and First Energy – paid tens of millions of dollars in civil penalties.
Ohio ratepayers are estimated to have paid more than $600 million in losses for the plants.
LG&E and KU is a financial supporter of WEKU.
