---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service newsservice@newsservicemail.org Date: Mon, May 13, 2013 at 3:13 AM Subject: WVNS story: Is Mon Power Trying to Stick Customers With a White Elephant? To: PaulWilson pjgrunt@gmail.com
Is Mon Power Trying to Stick Customers With a White Elephant? Dan Heyman, Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/32433-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsServicehttp://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService Twitter: @pns_news http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news @pns_WVhttp://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866
(05/13/13) CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Consumer advocates say Mon Power is trying to stick ratepayers with an overpriced white elephant, in a deal that would benefit another subsidiary of FirstEnergy.
The utility has asked the Public Service Commission to let it buy 80 percent of the huge Harrison power plant from sister company Allegheny Energy Supply. With natural gas cheaper than coal, said Cathy Kunkel, a policy analyst for Energy Efficient West Virginia, the Harrison plant is not as cost efficient.
FirstEnergy wants to shift the liability from a out-of-state subsidiary that would have to eat the cost to Mon Power, which would stick ratepayers for it, Kunkel said, adding that the sale price is way too high.
"Every utility in the country right now basically is running away from coal towards natural gas," she said. "Coal plants have been going for about a quarter of the price that Allegheny Energy Supply wants to sell Harrison for."
Kunkel said Mon Power would be paying too much for generating capacity for which it doesn't have nearly the demand.
"Buying the Harrison plant is way more energy and capacity than the company even needs," she said. "If they buy this plant, they're going to have excess energy and capacity for more than 10 years into the future."
A properly designed energy conservation program actually could make money for the company while reducing customers' bills, Kunkel said. That would be a lot smarter than paying too much for a generating station that has serious competitive disadvantages, she said.
"Around the country, time and again, we've seen that those sorts of energy-efficiency investments are actually much cheaper than investments in new generating capacity," she said.
The company says the Harrison County plant would give it more predictable future power costs. However, Kunkel said most projections are that gas will stay cheap at least through 2020.
The PSC will hold hearings on the case May 29-31. The case number is 12-1571-E-PC.
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