Kentucky Power Seeks Approval for $95.5M Cooling Tower at Mitchell

Kentucky Power filed an application with the Kentucky Public Service Commission seeking a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and related approvals to construct a mechanical draft cooling tower for Unit 2 at the Mitchell Generation Station south of Moundsville, West Virginia. The filing, entered as Case No. 2026-00001, says the company will invest approximately $95.5 million in the project; Mitchell is jointly owned by Kentucky Power and Wheeling Power, both subsidiaries of American Electric Power.

Company filings and public statements say the replacement is driven by structural deterioration discovered during recent reinforcement work and by engineering evaluations that found the current cooling tower is not viable for continued long-term operation. Kentucky Power said in its press materials that “building a new cooling tower protects reliability, avoids the loss of existing generation, and helps ensure we can continue to deliver dependable energy to our customers in the most affordable way possible.”

The PSC application requests not only a CPCN to construct the new cooling tower and to partially demolish the existing tower immediately, but also authority to fully demolish the existing tower when the Mitchell Plant is retired and approval of accounting treatments to establish a regulatory asset to accumulate and defer project costs for later review and recovery. The application cites KRS 278.020(1) and 807 KAR 5:001 Sections 14 and 15 and was filed under the cover letter signed by Linda C. Bridwell, PE, Executive Director of the Kentucky Public Service Commission; the filing lists Brian Thomas at 502-564-3940 for assistance.

Kentucky Power set a target completion date of 2029 and warned customers of temporary and permanent bill effects. The company projects smaller, temporary rate impacts of roughly 1% beginning in 2027 during construction, and an estimated 2.3% increase to the monthly bill for the average residential customer using 1,206 kWh per month once the project is placed into service in 2029. Kentucky Power’s materials note that the company’s share of Mitchell represents approximately 780 megawatts of baseload coal-fired capacity serving eastern Kentucky.

Separately, Kentucky Power applied in November to the U.S. Department of Energy for grant funding and is requesting 30% of the cooling tower project’s cost in that DOE application; WEKU reports the publicly available version of the DOE filing is heavily redacted with cost figures blacked out. Company social posts and newswire summaries reiterate the $95.5 million figure and the 2029 completion target.

The project comes after prior regulatory uncertainty for Mitchell; WEKU reports the plant — described as roughly 50 years old — faced a major hurdle in 2021 when the Kentucky PSC rejected Kentucky Power’s earlier request to maintain its share beyond 2028, and the company returned to the commission last year seeking approval for investment beyond 2028, with the commission granting approval on Dec. 30. Kentucky Power president and COO Cindy Wiseman emphasized the value of baseload generation during extreme weather, saying, “We have seen the value of having a baseload generation available, especially in times of extreme weather like we experienced at the end of January.”

Rate-change figures reported alongside the cooling tower filing are not uniform across sources. Kentuckytoday states the 2.3% projected for 2029 would be “in addition to the current 14.9% rate hike being sought.” WEKU reports a separate settlement that would raise customer rates 8% this year and 9% next year. The Kentucky PSC docket for Case No. 2026-00001 will govern review of the cooling tower request, and the West Virginia Public Service Commission will also review the project because Wheeling Power is a co-owner; the PSC contact listed in the Kentucky filing is Brian Thomas at 502-564-3940.