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Issue link: https://coal.epubxp.com/i/105148
news continued "At this time, and after much study and evaluation, we think this filing represents the best path forward for the company to meet both its environmental and customer obligations," said Greg Pauley, president and COO, Kentucky Power. "While it does represent an increase in customer's rates of about 8%, it is substantially less than our previous filing and will save our customers millions of dollars while bringing us into environmental compliance." When the scrubber plan was withdrawn, Kentucky Power said it believed that new opportunities were emerging that would allow the utility to meet its obligations at a lower cost. Among those options is the proposed purchase of 50% ownership in the 1,560-mw Mitchell coal plant near Moundsville, W.Va., CALENDAR OF EVENTS February 10-13, 2013 39th Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Technique— will be held at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas. Contact: International Society of Explosives Engineers (Tel: 440-349-4400; Web: www.isee.org). February 24-27, 2013 142nd SME Annual Meeting and Exhibit and CMA 115th National Western Mining Conference—will be held in Denver, Colo. Contact: Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (Tel: 303-948-4200; Email: meetings@smenet.org; Web: www.smenet.org/meetings). February 25-28, 2013 National Weighing and Sampling Association Annual Technical Meeting—will be held in Charlotte, N.C. Contact David Hansel, NW&SA; (Email: David.Hansel@consetellation.com; Web: www.nwsassn.org). March 7-8, 2013 21st Annual Coal Properties & Investment Conference—will be held at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Contact: Platts Conferences (Tel: 866-355-2930; Email: ron_berg@platts.com; Web: www.platts.com/events). April 15-21, 2013 bauma 2013—will be held in Munich, Germany. Contact: Messe München GmbH (Tel: 49 89 949-11348; Fax: 49 89 949-11349; Email: info@bauma.de; Web: www.bauma.de). April 30-May 2, 2013 Coal Prep 2013—will be held in Lexington, Ky. Contact: Penton Business Media (Tel: 800-927-5007; Email: registration@penton.com; Web: www.coalprepshow.com). May 19-22, 2013 Haulage & Loading—will be held in Litchfield Park, Ariz. Contact: Tanna Holzer (Tel: 303-283-0640; Email: tholzer@mining-media.com; Web: www.mining-media.com). June 11-13, 2013 Longwall USA Exhibition & Conference—will be held at the David L. Lawerence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pa. Contact: Tanna Holzer (Tel: 303283-0640; Email: tholzer@mining-media.com; Web: www.mining-media.com). July 30-August 1, 2013 31st International Conference on Ground Control in Mining— will be held at the Lakeview Golf Resort and Spa in Morgantown, W.Va. Contact: Karen Centofanti (Tel: 304-293-7680 ext. 3304; Fax: 304-293-5708; Email: KLcentofanti@mail.wvu.edu; Web: www.mine.cemr.wvu.edu). August 11-15, 2013 23rd World Mining Congress—will be held in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Contact: Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (Tel: 514.939.2710; Web: www.wmc-expo2013.org or www.cim.org). September 11-13 2013 Bluefield Coal Show—will be held at the Brushfork ArmoryCivic Center in Bluefield, W.Va. Contact: The Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce (Tel: 304-327-7184; Fax: 304-325-3085; Email: info@bluefieldchamber.com; Web: www.bluefieldchamber.com). 16 www.coalage.com from sister utility Ohio Power Co. Kentucky Power is asking the PSC for authority to recover about $530 million in costs related to the planned acquisition. Kentucky Power wants to buy half of the output of Mitchell's 770-mw Unit 1 and 790-mw Unit 2, for a total of 780 mw. Both Mitchell units are equipped with advanced environmental controls, including scrubbers to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, and meet all current federal Environmental Protection Agency requirements. Ownership in the other half of Mitchell would be transferred to Appalachian Power Co., another AEP subsidiary. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval also will be required for the transfer. Pauley said Big Sandy will continue to run as it does today "for a couple more years," and any of the plant's roughly 120 employees affected by the planned changes will have the opportunity to pursue other job prospects with AEP and Kentucky Power. In any event, Big Sandy Unit 2 will cease burning coal and be retired in 2015. The FutureGen Saga Continues Supporters of the nearly decade-old FutureGen clean coal project unwrapped a badly needed Christmas present when the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a power purchase agreement for the full 166-mw output of the Meredosia power plant in Morgan County that would be retrofitted with oxy-combustion technology by 2017. In a December 19 decision, the ICC endorsed a sourcing agreement proposed by the Illinois Power Agency that requires the state's largest electric utilities, Commonwealth Edison and Ameren Illinois, to purchase electricity from FutureGen 2.0, the latest incarnation of a project born during the first term of former President George W. Bush, for 20 years. The utilities will be permitted to collect costs for the project on a pro rata basis from alternative retail electric suppliers. The Retail Energy Supply Association, a national trade group for competitive electric suppliers, strongly opposed the sourcing arrangement, claiming FutureGen's power will be too expensive. But FutureGen and its backers ultimately won out. Some had warned that an unfavorable vote by the ICC would doom a project that has endured countless delays in recent years. The ICC said the sourcing agreement "moves the state forward in complying with the Illinois Clean Coal Portfolio Standard, which states as a goal that 25% of the state's electricity should come from clean coal by 2025." Illinois' two U.S. senators, Democrat Richard Durbin and his Republican counterpart, Mark Kirk, urged the ICC to approve the FutureGen plan. Durbin also asked U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu to approve the next phase of the project, which could include preliminary design, pre-construction and engineering. The Department of Energy already has approved $1 billion in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the project. Although FutureGen's estimated price tag remains around $1.65 billion, Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesman for the FutureGen Alliance, said the final cost is expected to be less than that. Illinois Coal Association President Phil Gonet attended the commission meeting and breathed a sigh of relief following the decision. "I was pleasantly surprised," he said. "Given their response to prior attempts for energy procurement, I wasn't really that hopeful." The IPA proposal passed narrowly, 3 to 2. January 2013