AEP Ohio

{{#badges: Climate change |CoalSwarm}}AEP Ohio is a subsidiary of American Electric Power and the largest of its regional utility divisions serving nearly 1.5 million customers in Ohio and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. AEP Ohio consists of Columbus Southern Power Company, Ohio Power Company, and Wheeling Power.

Coal-fired plants account for 74 percent of AEP's generating capacity, while natural gas represents 15 percent and nuclear 8 percent. The remaining 3 percent comes from wind, hydro, pumped storage and other sources.

AEP Ohio is part of the American Electric Power system, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, with more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation's largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation's largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP's utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP's headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio Power Company and Coal

Muskingum River Plant is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by American Electric Power near Beverly, Ohio.

Muskingum River ranked 45th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste

In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill. The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.

Muskingum River Plant ranked number 45 on the list, with 791,757 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

"High Hazard" Surface Impoundments

Three of Muskingum River Plant's surface impoundments are on the EPA's official June 2009 list of Coal Combustion Residue (CCR) Surface Impoundments with High Hazard Potential Ratings. The rating applies to sites at which a dam failure would most likely cause loss of human life, but does not assess of the likelihood of such an event.

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• Existing U.S. Coal Plants
• Ohio and coal
• American Electric Power
• United States and coal
• Global warming

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