State of WV has authorized 50 MW of Solar Energy per Utility

As part of our ongoing effort to support reliable electricity and economic development in West Virginia, FirstEnergy is in the process of developing a first phase of solar energy facilities that will generate approximately 50 megawatts of power. The program is designed to encourage economic development in West Virginia and help us meet the growing demand for renewable energy by our residential, commercial and industrial customers.

The energy generated from our solar facilities will be available for purchase via Solar Renewable Energy Credits by Mon Power customers or Potomac Edison customers located in West Virginia.

If you would like to sign up to learn more about FirstEnergy’s solar program and subscribe, please fill out the fields below and submit your information.

SOLAR ENERGY FORM: https://www.firstenergycorp.com/mon_power/wv-solar-program.html

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SEE ALSO ~ Delegate Evan Hansen, Regarding the Legislative Energy Committee Meeting, June 15, 2022

Yesterday’s Energy Committee meeting focused on solar was…interesting. The good news is that West Virginia’s utilities are moving forward with their first large solar projects and report strong interest in solar electricity from their customers, including industrial customers that demand large amounts of renewable energy. This was the argument we made when passing SB 583 in 2020.

But several legislators tried to focus the hearing on the benefits of burning more coal — when 1/3 of the U.S. population (including much of West Virginia) was under heat warnings and advisories for triple-digit-high temperatures and more than 33 large fires were burning across five states and more than 1 million acres.

Thankfully, individuals and businesses want to be part of the solution to climate change, and state policy is slowly moving in that direction despite objections from legislators committed to the status quo.

Thanks to WV-CAD from WV Energy Freedom

From the Press Release, West Virginians for Energy Freedom, January 13, 2018

A federal decision put an end to FirstEnergy Corp.’s bad deal for its West Virginia customers, thousands of whom had protested the company’s plan.

On January 12th, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) denied Ohio-based FirstEnergy’s request to transfer ownership of the Pleasants power plant to Mon Power, one of FirstEnergy’s regulated West Virginia utilities.

Under FirstEnergy’s proposal, customers of Mon Power and Potomac Edison, another FirstEnergy-owned utility in West Virginia, would have assumed all of the plant’s costs and financial risks, while FirstEnergy and its shareholders would receive a guaranteed revenue stream.

The Pleasants deal needed approval from both FERC and the Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia. Solar United Neighbors of West Virginia and West Virginia Citizen Action Group, represented by Earthjustice, challenged FirstEnergy’s proposal before FERC and the PSC. At FERC, SUN-WV and WVCAG argued that customers would be forced to cross-subsidize FirstEnergy’s corporate affiliates.

In its decision, FERC denied FirstEnergy’s proposal because of cross-subsidy concerns. In particular, FERC found that Mon Power’s December 2016 request for proposals for additional power plant capacity – which SUN-WV and WVCAG argued was biased in favor of the Pleasants plant – failed to meet federal standards.

“FERC rejected the Pleasants sale because of the risk that it would result in improper cross-subsidization among subsidiaries of FirstEnergy,” said Cathy Kunkel, an energy analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “Indeed, FirstEnergy clearly orchestrated the sale of the Pleasants plant in order to shift costs and risk from a deregulated subsidiary onto the customers of Mon Power and Potomac Edison.”

Under this ruling, Mon Power would need to conduct a new RFP process if still seeks to acquire additional power generation capacity.

“In this decision, the FERC commissioners – four of whom were appointed by the current president – unanimously rejected a brazen attempt to force Mon Power and Potomac Edison customers to guarantee profits for FirstEnergy and its shareholders. This is a major victory for West Virginia customers, who would have likely paid hundreds of millions of dollars if FirstEnergy’s scheme had succeeded,” said Michael Soules, an Earthjustice attorney representing SUN-WV and WVCAG.

The Pleasants deal would have cost the average residential household approximately $69 each year for the next 15 years, according to expert testimony in the case before the PSC. In total that’s a net present value loss of $470 million that 530,000 Mon Power and Potomac Edison customers would be forced to bear.

FirstEnergy had expressed confidence to investors that the Pleasants sale would close in the first quarter of 2018. However, earlier this week, a lawyer for FirstEnergy, concerned that FERC might rule against the company, made an improper ex parte communication with one of the FERC commissioners in an attempt to influence the Commission’s decision.

“From its past history with the Harrison Plant sale to its sham RFP and misleading claims in the FERC and PSC cases on Pleasants, FirstEnergy has repeatedly demonstrated it prioritizes its bottom line and stockholders over consumers in West Virginia. This time, thankfully FERC stopped FirstEnergy in its tracks,” said Karan Ireland of West Virginians For Energy Freedom.

Read the FERC decision.

Source: Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)

Letter to Editor of Morgantown Dominion Post, Jim Kotcon, August 27, 2017

Your August 21st editorial criticizing the proposal by Gov. Jim Justice to use taxpayer dollars to provide a $15 per ton subsidy for coal was correct. Gov. Justice may have changed his registration to Republican, but this proposal illustrates that his “tax and spend” mentality has not changed. Fortunately, it is doubtful that such a crackpot idea will ever be approved.

But a more insidious and serious threat looms for West Virginians. Our local utility, Mon Power, is proposing to bail out its Ohio affiliate by purchasing an outdated and uncompetitive power plant.

The Pleasants plant is over 30 years old, and has the highest emissions of sulfur dioxide of any conventional coal-fired plant in West Virginia.

This plant cannot compete on the open market in Ohio, but if the transfer to Mon Power is approved, we ratepayers will be forced to guarantee a profit to Mon Power stockholders, regardless of whether the plant is needed or cost-effective. Good deal for them, bad for us.

This has happened before. In 2009, First Energy installed $700 million scrubbers at the Hatfields Ferry plant, then closed it in 2013. Check your most recent electric bill, and you will find an “Environmental Control Charge” that we are still paying for those costs, even though the plant is closed.

Also in 2013, Mon Power acquired the Harrison plant, promising that it would lower our electric bills. Instead, a recent study found that Mon Power ratepayers have paid more than $160 million more for electricity than if the transfer had not occurred.

The West Virginia Sierra Club and Mountaineers for Progress will host a public forum on this issue at the Mon Arts Center at 7 p.m. September 7th. The state Public Service Commission will hold a hearing on the plant transfer at 6 p.m. September 12th, at the Monongalia County Courthouse.

If you are tired of paying ever-increasing electric bills so that out-of-state investors are guaranteed a profit at your expense, please come to these events and let our public officials know how you feel.

>>> Jim Kotcon, West Virginia Sierra Club, Morgantown