MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A Morgantown-area power plant has filed for bankruptcy.
Longview Power, which operates the Longview Power Plant near Maidsville in Monongalia County, announced the Chapter 11 filing Friday in a news release.
The company blames its financial problems in part on construction failures and defects that “have prevented the power plant from operating reliably at its designed capacity.”
Longview Power CEO Jeffery Keffer said the Chapter 11 filing would allow the company to keep the plant located across the Monongahela River from Morgantown operating while allowing the company to “strengthen and operate our businesses without interruption while continuing to restructure the Company’s balance sheet.”
The bankruptcy includes several of Longview’s affiliates like Morgantown-based Mepco Holdings.
“I want to make clear that we will continue to conduct business as usual and our operations and employees will not be affected by the Chapter 11 filing,” Jim Laurita, Jr., CEO of Mepco said in a released statement. ‘We will continue to provide our customers with the level of service they have come to expect from this great company and its employees. This is the best option the Company has to negotiate its balance sheet with the Company’s lenders.’