CHARLESTON — On the eve of a deadline set by two FirstEnergy subsidiaries, the West Virginia Public Service Commission gave its approval Monday for the plan that will keep the Pleasants Power Plant warmed up and its workers employed for 12 months, while ratepayers pick up the tab.

In an order posted early Monday evening, the PSC authorized Monongahela Power Co. and Potomac Edison Co. to continue negotiations with Texas-based Energy Transition and Environmental Management (ETEM) to finalize a letter of intent to maintain the power plant and keep the plant’s 154 workers employed beginning in June and ending May 2024.

“… The Commission determines that it would be imprudent for the Companies to sit idly by while a large base load thermal power plant in their West Virginia service area, and that they once owned a portion of, is demolished without taking all steps possible to keep the plant operative,” the PSC order stated.

“… We find that when balancing the interest of the current and future customers, the general interests of the State’s economy and interests of the companies, the Interim Solution Proposal is in the public interest and should be approved,” the order continued.

The PSC gave the companies until March 31 to submit a report to the commission on the feasibility of purchasing Pleasants Power separate from an approved $91.9 million increase in the Expanded Net Energy Costs surcharge at the end of 2022.

Instead, the companies submitted a request to the PSC to approve its interim plan to keep Pleasants Power functional, along with a $36 million temporary surcharge for Mon Power/Potomac Edison residential, commercial, and industrial customers in North Central West Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle. The plant will no longer generate electricity, requiring new federal approvals in the future.

The companies set a deadline of Tuesday, April 25, for the PSC to approve the Pleasants Power Plan. The PSC order provides that the temporary surcharge will not be placed on Mon Power/Potomac Edison customers until the companies and ETEM sign a letter of intent that must be approved by the PSC. Company officials said last week those negotiations are ongoing. Any additional costs would have to be brought to the PSC in a new rate case.

The PSC said the Mon Power/Potomac Edison interim temporary solution for Pleasants Power was reasonable. According to the PSC, the plan provides the companies time to further evaluate purchasing the plant; provides a reasonable plan to compensate ETEM while demolition of the plant — originally slated to begin after May 31 — on hold; and only charges ratepayers for the actual costs of maintaining the plant for a limited time.

Pleasants Power, located south of St. Marys and Belmont, is a 1,300-megawatt coal-fired power plant. Beyond its 154 direct employees, the power plant employs thousands of temporary union workers during its maintenance periods, as well as coal miners in the Northern Panhandle who help supply the plant. According to two resolutions adopted by the House of Delegates and state Senate, the plant has a $400 million economic impact for Pleasants County and the surrounding Mid-Ohio Valley.

Pleasants Power was commissioned in 1979, with its second unit going online one year later. Thursday will mark 45 years since 51 workers died at the plant when part of one of the cooling towers collapsed in what was once considered the deadliest construction accident in U.S. history. A monument to those 51 workers — including four brothers — sits on a nearby hill.

The plant was slated to be shut down in 2018. Deactivation of the plant was moved to 2022 but put on hold in 2019 after the Legislature passed a bill in a special session to provide FirstEnergy Solutions a $12.5 million annual break in business and occupation taxes for the plant. Energy Harbor announced last March it would close the plant beginning May 31, selling the plant to ETEM for demolition while leasing the plant and burning off its remaining coal stockpiles.

The PSC said it has a responsibility to ensure fair regulation of public utilities that are economical and reliable, but it also has a legislative mandate to ensure West Virginia’s coal-fired power plants continue to operate and provide base load electric generation to the state and the region through the PJM Interconnectivity market. The commission cited a PJM report from February raising concerns about reliance by the grid on intermittent sources of energy, such as wind and solar.

“PJM has recently studied the reliability quality of its near-term power supply and found that reliability is impacted by over-reliance on intermittent resources, mostly solar and wind,” the PSC wrote. “The retirement of thermal resources, and the likelihood of few, if any, new thermal resources is a major problem and the absence of massive build-up of new storage capacity, which is highly unlikely.”

The PSC held a public comment hearing last Thursday, followed by an evidentiary hearing the following day. The Pleasants Power plan was endorsed by the West Virginia Coal Association, while the plan was opposed by the West Virginia Energy Users Group, Longview Power, the Sierra Club, Energy Efficient West Virginia, West Virginia Citizens Action Group, Solar United Neighbors, and the PSC’s Consumer Advocate Division.