AEP Ohio

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{{#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.[1]

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.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4] The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.[5]

Muskingum River Plant ranked number 45 on the list, with 791,757 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.[4]

"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.[6]

Proposed Coal Plants

In 2005 AEP filed an air permit application with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in October 2006 for a proposed 629 megawatt (MW) Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant in Meigs County, Ohio, the Great Bend IGCC. The Great Bend power plant is one of two IGCC power plants proposed by AEP in the Ohio/West Virginia region (the other is Mountaineer, in Mason County, West Virginia), and the two plants will be located within thirty miles of each other.[7] The Great Bend plant would be operated by AEP Ohio and another AEP subsidiary, Columbus Southern Power.

In April 2006, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) approved AEP’s request to charge its customers for $23 million in pre-construction costs.[7] In Aug. 2006, this decision was challenged in the Ohio Supreme Court by the Ohio Consumers' Counsel and Industrial Energy Users-Ohio; this lawsuit could delay the projected in-service date of the plant by up to seven years. Oral arguments in the case were heard on Oct. 9, 2007.[8] In April 2007, the Ohio Siting Board approved the construction of the plant.[9]

In February 2009, AEP announced that construction of the plant would be placed on temporary hold due to economic conditions. An AEP executive indicated that although the corporation will not "proceed on construction in the near future", they are "still very interested in the project".[10]

AEP raises rates in Ohio

On March 18, 2009, the Ohio PUC approved rate increases for two AEP companies, but the hikes are only about half of of what the utility had requested. Columbus Southern Power customers will face a maximum increase of 7 percent in 2009 and 6 percent in both 2010 and 2011. Ohio Power customers will face a maximum increase of 8 percent in 2009, 7 percent in 2010, and 8 percent in 2011.[11]

Articles and Resources

Sources

  1. ↑ "AEP Ohio Facts" AEP Ohio Website, August 2009
  2. ↑ "AEP Ohio Facts" AEP Ohio Website, August 2009
  3. ↑ "AEP Ohio Facts" AEP Ohio Website, August 2009
  4. ↑ Jump up to: 4.0 4.1 Sue Sturgis, "Coal's ticking timebomb: Could disaster strike a coal ash dump near you?," Institute for Southern Studies, January 4, 2009.
  5. ↑ TRI Explorer, EPA, accessed January 2009.
  6. ↑ Coal waste
  7. ↑ Jump up to: 7.0 7.1 AEP and IGCC, AEP Ohio corporate website, accessed January 2008.
  8. ↑ Oral Argument Video Archives: October 9, 2007, The Supreme Court of Ohio website.
  9. ↑ "Ohio Approves AEP's Great Bend IGCC Site Plan", Gasification News, May 16, 2007. (This is an abbreviated version of the article; access to the full article requires registration.)
  10. ↑ "AEP: Clean coal plant on hold", Pomeroy Daily Sentinel, February 7, 2009.
  11. ↑ Dan Gearino, "AEP given OK to raise rates in Ohio, but about half what it asked," Columbus Dispatch, March 18, 2009.

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