IGCC in WV before OH?

American Electric Power has filed regulatory paperwork to build its new coal-fired power plant in Meigs County, Ohio, just downriver from Ravenswood, W.Va., but that does not necessarily mean the plant will be built.

According to Reuters, AEP CEP Michael Morris told the Reuters Global Energy Summit in New York City on Monday of last week that he expects West Virginia to be where AEP builds its next clean-coal plant.

The reason is that West Virginia has an easier regulatory process than Ohio.

The story on the Reuters Web site goes on to say AEP could get the regulatory go-ahead from West Virginia to build the plant late this year or early next year. The plant site is next to AEP’s Mountaineer plant near the Mason County town of New Haven.

AEP plans to build two plants that use technology known as IGCC. The IGCC process converts coal to synthetic natural gas, which is burned to produce electricity. The process produces fewer pollutants than the traditional method of burning pulverized coal, but IGCC plants are more expensive to build.

AEP has selected three sites for two plants: Meigs County, Mason County and a spot in Lewis County, Ky., near the town of Vanceburg. Morris said it is possible the plants will be built in West Virginia and Kentucky if the regulatory process in Kentucky is finished before the process in Ohio.

I contacted AEP spokeswoman Melissa McHenry by e-mail to ask about the Reuters report on Morris’ comments.

She said Ohio is “transitioning” to deregulation, so it is likely that a decision for IGCC cost recovery will be litigated. That sounded like what I had heard out of Ohio before, that several people and groups oppose any rate increases to pay the increased costs of building an IGCC plant.

On a sort of related matter, some people in Illinois are trying to have a new coal-fired power plant there be designed as an IGCC plant instead of a conventional plant. The reasons are environmental.

But City Water, Light and Power of Springfield, Ill., wants a traditional plant because IGCC plants cost more to build and operate. Company officials also expressed doubt about an IGCC plant’s reliability, according to an article in the State Journal Register of Springfield.