Capito says Mitchell Plant will be ‘here for a long time’
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MOUNDSVILLE -- U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito took a tour of the Mitchell Power Plant in Marshall County on Tuesday afternoon to get an up-close look at how the plant is serving the surrounding community. While observing the plant’s present, the West Virginia Republican also said she is excited for its future, which has an extended life thanks to federal funding.
“The good news is that Mitchell is going to be here for a long time,” Capito said.
The plant -- a 1,560-megawatt facility co-owned by Appalachian Power and Kentucky Power, both subsidiaries of American Electric Power -- received $51 million as part of a United States Department of Energy grant program that will go toward the $158.6 million cost to build a new mechanical draft cooling tower at the site. That tower will replace a 60-year-old natural draft cooling tower.
In a quest for energy affordability, Capito said the enhancements to the Mitchell Plant will help. While Capito said the Biden administration wanted to shutter plants like Mitchell, the best solution was to find ways to lengthen the plant’s life in order to provide coal-powered energy for years to come.
“I think the common-sense way is to modernize and elongate the life of these plants so that coal can play the integral part it can as base-load fuel,” she said. “While we’re building more power, and more power is coming on line, we’re not just maintaining what we have, but we’re modernizing it so it can stay on longer and be more productive.”
Appalachian Power President Brian Abraham, who with Kentucky Power President Cindy Wiseman led Capito on a tour of the Mitchell Plant, said Mitchell will be a key component in an all-of-the-above approach to energy that Capito and others are championing.
“We know if we’re going to create affordability for our customers, we’ve got to grow our base,” Abraham said.
That expanded base would include large-load customers like data centers, and Abraham said getting those customers into the state and getting them to pay their fair share would help lower rates for residential customers.
The introduction of data centers into West Virginia has been a controversial subject around the state, including in the Northern Panhandle. Gov. Patrick Morrisey recently introduced the West Virginia Responsible Data Center Development Plan, which he said would create a proactive strategy that would help protect communities from unsuitable developments.
Aspects of that plan include comprehensive state planning, direct tax relief for citizens, ratepayer and water asset protection and local oversight, among others.
Abraham said Appalachian Power has been working toward that already.
“Already before that announcement, we’ve been talking to these data centers and making them understand they’ve got to be responsible to pay their fair share,” he said.