AMP Ohio Coal Plant Canceled

This is a nice piece of news. Hopefully the folks in Meigs County, OH will have a good holiday this year in celebrating the cancellation of this proposed plant.

Meigs is ranked as one of the most polluted counties in the country as southeast Ohio is already the site of many coal plants. Nov. 25, 2009 was the day construction on the plant was set to begin, but instead it was the day that AMP announced the cancellation.

In the past few years, many groups had targeted this proposed plant.

American Municipal Power will not build coal-fired power plant
November 25, 2009, 11:54AM
American Municipal Power, the largest supplier of power to Cleveland, will announce at noon today that it has cancelled its coal-fired 1,000-megawatt power plant on the Ohio River in Meigs County.

The main reason: escalating prices that have put the cost of the plant close to $4 billion. Two years ago, the estimated cost was $2.5 billion.

AMP and its board of trustees, consisting of municipal power system directors, are looking at other fuels, principally natural gas. The board met last week.

AMP did not return phone calls this morning.

Cleveland Public Power marketing director Shelley Shockley confirmed the decision. “The coal-fired plant will not go forward,” she said. “The site will be reconfigured for the production of power, but the form of generation has not been determined.”

AMP is a wholesale supplier to more than 100 municipal systems. Cleveland had contracted to buy 185 megwatts worth of power from the 1,000-megawatt plant. The city’s total power demand is in excess of 300 megawatts.