Kentucky Power Announces Plan

{Louisa, Kentucky}…Kentucky Power announced Wednesday it intends to close its primary generating unit at the Big Sandy Power Plant in Louisa and replace it with power generated in Moundsville, West Virginia. Under the plan, Kentucky Power would obtain 50 percent of the Mitchell Generation Station, in Moundsville, which is currently owned by AEP-Ohio. The cost of the transfer would be $530 million. If approved, consumers would see an 8 percent increase in electric bills. Kentucky Power is under a federal consent decree to bring the Big Sandy plant into compliance with the Clean Air Act by the end of 2015 or close the facility. Officials scrapped plans earlier this year to install a $1 billion scrubber, saying they wanted to “reevaluate alternatives” due to changes in the energy market. The construction would have caused electric bills to soar 31 percent.