By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — American Electric Power’s subsidiaries serving West Virginia have proposed making its customers pay millions of dollars more for federally required upgrades at three in-state coal-fired power plants after utility regulators in two other states denied those upgrades following findings that they were uneconomic.
Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power on Wednesday petitioned the West Virginia Public Service Commission to approve making West Virginia customers responsible for $48 million annually to cover wastewater compliance work to keep the John Amos, Mountaineer and Mitchell coal-fired generating plants in Putnam, Mason and Marshall counties federally compliant with federal effluent limitation guidelines.
The companies are asking West Virginia customers to shoulder all of the cost burden for these planned upgrades because Kentucky and Virginia state utility regulators denied the companies’ requests to approve the upgrades required to keep the plants compliant with wastewater discharge guidelines.
Not making the wastewater treatment upgrades would require that the plants shutter in 2028, per U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules…
