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American Electric Power Co. Inc. said in its Oct. 30 Form 10-Q filing that despite regulatory obstacles, it has not totally abandoned plans to build integrated gasification combined-cycle power plants in Meigs County, Ohio, and Mason County, W.Va.
Both coal-fueled IGCC plants ran into different regulatory problems and have been largely shelved. An integrated resource plan that AEP's Appalachian Power Co. unit filed in September at the Virginia State Corporation Commission covers the whole AEP System-East Zone, which includes Ohio and West Virginia, and does not include either IGCC plant as a future supply side option in the 10-year planning period.
In its latest Form 10-Q, AEP noted that its Columbus Southern Power Co. and Ohio Power Co. units had jointly pursued approval of the 629-MW Great Bend IGCC at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The PUCO in June 2006 approved certain pre-construction spending on the project, but with a provision for a refund of that money to ratepayers if the project was not in construction within five years, by June 2011.
"In September 2008, the Ohio Consumers' Counsel filed a motion with the PUCO requesting all pre-construction costs be refunded to Ohio ratepayers with interest," the Form 10-Q said. "In October 2008, CSPCo and OPCo filed a response with the PUCO that argued the Ohio...