MORGANTOWN — Mon Power and its FirstEnergy sister company Potomac Edison will have a Dec. 11 public evidentiary hearing before the state Public Service Commission regarding their plan to end the Electric Energy Purchase Agreement with the Morgantown Energy Associates plant on Beechurst Avenue.
Under the plan, the waste coal-fired MEA would cease producing electricity on Jan. 1, 2020, but would continue providing steam to WVU’s two Morgantown campuses.
Mon Power has been purchasing electricity – about 50 megawatts – from the plant under the EEPA since April 1992. The contract was set to continue through April, 27, 2027. But the contract was a money loser for Mon Power, the company has said.
The prices dictated by the contract exceed the price of power Mon Power can buy from other sources and are expected to remain above those market rates. The higher rates cost Mon Power customers about $70 million from 2014-2018, the filing says and would cost another $17.7 million above market rates in 2020 if the contract would continue.
Mon Power made a filing with the PSC to buy out of the contract for $60 million. Mon Power spokesman Jeffrey Straight previously told The Dominion Post, “Terminating the contract now can save our customers money while having no impact on our ability to supply them with low-cost, reliable electricity.”
In an order confirming the hearing date, the PSC says Mon Power must explain what electric capacity must be replaced, its plans to replace it through the original contract period and whether Mon Power plans to sell that capacity into the PJM market.
PJM is the regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia. PJM is still conducting a reliability analysis concerning the capacity to be lost through the proposed deactivation.
PSC also wants a detailed projection of the estimated net cost savings of the proposal.
PSC’s scheduling order sets Nov. 12 for Mon Power to provide direct testimony regarding the proposal; Dec. 3 for other parties to testify; Dec. 9 for rebuttal testimony; and the hearing for Dec. 11.
Mon Power’s proposal was originally filed as part of an existing energy rate case – an ENEC case – in which Mon Power proposes to lower residential bills by about 70 cents per month. The PSC separated the MEA proposal into a separate case. The companies and intervening parties then asked the PSC to hold hearings for both cases on the same day because their issues overlap and decisions have to be made by the Jan. 1 deadline.
PSC will hear the ENEC case at 9:30 a.m. and the MEA case afterward.
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