Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced major investments during the annual West Virginia Energy Summit.
Appalachian Power Company committed $17 billion for three natural gas-fired plants totaling 3 gigawatts, expected to be operational by 2031, and $7.5 billion to upgrade coal-fired plants through 2050, the governor told the audience at the summit.
Morrisey said the big initiatives should help drive the state economy while bolstering his administration’s 50 by 50 energy plan, which is is a framework designed to triple the state’s electricity-generating capacity from roughly 16 gigawatts to 50 GW by the year 2050.
He said his administration is now at 30 percent of the additional capacity that we need to make the 50 by 50 pledge.
“And I said we were going to leverage our energy resources like you’ve never seen before, and that’s how West Virginia was going to grow,” Morrisey said.
On the natural gas power plant announcement, Morrisey said the initiative would bring economic growth to various parts of West Virginia.
He said, “This will be three gigawatts, three different plans, geographically dispersed, brings benefits to many parts of West Virginia. Expected to lead to 2,050 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs, and these are going to be good-paying jobs for West Virginians.”
The related coal-fired power plant announcement, Morrisey said, would help West Virginia maintain energy resources the state aleady has.
“While we’re going to keep increasing generation, we also have to protect the power we already have. A key piece of that 50 by 50 initiative was trying to make sure we’re going to extend reasonable, useful life of coal and fight to make that happen and look at all of the available sources of energy,” he said.
“So I’m also pleased today that APCO is going to be announcing it’s committing another 7.5 billion dollars to upgrade its West Virginia coal-fired power plants through 2050.”
Morrisey said more announcements are up ahead. He also said his administration would push for legislative policies intended to benefit the workforce.
“And let me just say, if you like the last two years, the best is yet to come,” Morrisey said.