AEP issues planned WARN Act notices at three WV power plants
AEP issues planned WARN notices at three W.Va. power plants
American Electric Power earlier this week issued notices to employees at three West Virginia power plants, including the Kanawha River Plant in Glasgow, informing them the plants would be closed within two months.
The notices are part of a plan the company announced in June 2011 to meet new toxic emissions standards handed down by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to the three West Virginia plants, the company also issued notices to shutter its Glen Lyn Plant at Glen Lyn, Va., as well as some generating units at its Big Sandy Plant in Louisa, Ky.; the Muskingum River Plant in Beverly, Ohio; and the Tanners Creek Plant in Lawrenceburg, Ind.
The West Virginia coal-fired plants are among the oldest in the company’s fleet and it was less costly to go ahead and close them rather than invest the money needed to get them to comply with the EPA’s new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, rule.
The power company issued the 60-day closure notices Monday, according to spokeswoman Jeri Matheney. The notices are required under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act.
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The plants, which are more than 50 years old, had already been slated for closure between 2017 and 2020. The new EPA rules advanced that schedule.
Matheney said about 50 people still work at the Kanawha River Plant. She said the company has worked to find many of the workers other jobs at other company facilities, and many are expected to transfer to the John E. Amos Power Plant in Putnam County.
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Matheney said almost all of those remaining workers are eligible for retirement benefits.
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Kanawha County officials have estimated the town of Glasgow could lose $197,000 in annual business and occupation tax revenue while the town could lose about $1.1 million in property taxes each year once the plant closes.
In addition to closing the old coal-fired plants, the company planned to implement several other changes in order to meet the new environmental standard. That included installing emissions reductions equipment at eight coal-fired plants in Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. The company also finished construction of a natural-gas fired plant in Dresden, Ohio. That plant began producing power in February 2012.
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