Kentucky Power has told the Kentucky Public Service Commission what it will cost to build a new cooling tower at its Mitchell plant.
A mechanical draft cooling tower at the Mitchell plant in West Virginia will cost $191 million to construct.
That’s what the company told the Kentucky commission in a filing this week. It also told the PSC that the U.S. Department of Energy did not select the project for a federal grant.
Customers of Kentucky Power and Wheeling Power will share the total cost of the cooling tower, subject to the approval of regulators in Kentucky and West Virginia.
Kentucky Power has said one of the plant’s two concrete cooling towers, which are more than 50 years old, is deteriorating. Replacement was determined to be the best option.
The project will cost the average residential customer $4.59 more each month.
Sarah Lynch, a spokeswoman for Kentucky Power, said the company applied for $50 million and said it would pursue any future grant opportunities.
In December, the Kentucky commission approved Kentucky Power’s application to continue investment in Mitchell beyond 2028. That will add $2 a month to residential customers’ bills.
The PSC is also considering a Kentucky Power rate increase, 15% as originally submitted.
In a settlement agreement reached last month, customers will see a 12% increase over current rates in 2028, with two smaller increases this year and next.
The commission held three public hearings on the rate increase, in Pikeville, Hazard and Ashland. Residents and local officials spoke uniformly in opposition.
Kentucky Power has about 162,000 customers in 20 eastern Kentucky counties.
Mitchell, a 1,600-megawatt power plant south of Moundsville, West Virginia, is equally owned by Kentucky Power and Wheeling Power.
Though Mitchell is anticipated to shut down in 2040, Kentucky Power says the cooling tower replacement gives it the option to continue operating the plant beyond then.
Wheeling Power’s Integrated Resource Plan, filed with the West Virginia PSC last year, shows that Mitchell has the lowest capacity factor of American Electric Power’s three West Virginia coal plants, at 25%. The average in PJM, the regional grid operator that includes West Virginia and part of Kentucky, is 40%.
