CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Appalachian Power is ready to acquire two facilities which will provide a substantial renewable energy component to the company’s product portfolio.
The state Public Service Commission this week approved cost recovery for Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power for the projects. The first will be the Amherst Solar Facility in Amherst County, Virginia. The company will also acquire the Top Hat Wind Facility in Logan County, Illinois. Those two projects are Purchase Sales Agreements in which Appalachian Power will buy the facilities and operate them after they are constructed. The petition also allows for a purchased power agreement from the Horsepen Solar Facility which is also located in Virginia.
Company spokesman Phil Moye said the renewable sources of power are a requirement of Nucor Steel.
“Nucor’s commitment to West Virginia was based on our ability to have renewable energy available,” said Moye.
Nucor requires at least 20 percent of the power for their operations be generated by renewable sources. The total amount is around 400,000 megawatt hours a year. Moye said that’s becoming more and more common and will be needed in the future.
“A lot of other companies that would want to relocate or build in an area have similar requirements. I think that’s a big part of the push you see for some of the solar, wind, and renewable projects in West Virginia is that companies like Nucor require that,” he added.
Moye said often adding renewable energy to the power company’s portfolio becomes an economic development tool in the area of operations.
“It’s not designed to replace coal or gas, but it’s there because there’s a demand for it,” he said.
The cost will be offset by a couple of factors. Customers sign up through a Renewable Power Plus Tariff and pay extra which helps recover the costs of the purchased power from renewables or through operations of company owned renewable power facilities. Moye said in the long run it pays for itself.
“Projections we’ve done when we filed this last year is over time, these projects will pay for themselves and then some,” he said.