MORGANTOWN – The Public Service Commission on Friday gave its blessing to reopening its review of a proposed ratepayer surcharge by Mon Power and Potomac Edison to help pay for construction of three of five planned solar energy projects.
“The commission will reopen this matter to review the companies’ proposed surcharge and to determine if approval to begin construction on three of the five solar sites should be granted,” the PSC order says,
The solar program stems from a 2020 bill passed by the West Virginia Legislature that authorizes electric utilities to own and operate up to 200 megawatts of solar renewable generation facilities to help meet the state’s electricity needs.
Mon Power plans to build, own and operate five utility-scale solar facilities, which are located on property owned by Mon Power or its affiliates.
Last October, Mon Power began actively recruiting customers for its solar renewable energy credits (SREC) program announced in May 2022.
SRECs are certificates that represent the environmental attributes of solar power and prove solar energy was generated on the purchasers’ behalf. For every megawatt hour of solar energy generated, one SREC is produced. When fully operational, the five projects are expected to create more than 87,000 SRECs per year.
The PSC initially denied the surcharge request in April 2022, pending them reaching an 85% SREC subscription threshold for each site. The PSC required that when Mon Power and Potomac Edison obtained customer commitments for 85% of the renewable energy credits generated by a solar facility, the companies would seek final approval from the PSC for a surcharge to cover the balance of the project costs and begin full-scale construction.
In its Friday order, the PSC said the companies have reported that they have received SREC subscriptions for 85% for two sites: Fort Martin (adjacent to Mon Power’s Fort Martin coal-fired plant), the first and largest project, at 18.9 megawatts; and a 27-acre retired ash disposal site in Rivesville, Marion County, to generate 5.5 MW.
They expect to reach 85% for a third site – a 26-acre reclaimed ash disposal site in Marlowe, Berkeley County, with 5.8 MW capacity – within the next six months or less, and the companies included that one in their April petition to reopen the surcharge case. All told, the three sites represent 30.1 MW of the total 50 MW project.
The companies told PSC that 651 customers have subscribed for SRECs.
Mon Power told The Dominion Post on Friday that the proposed surcharge is significantly less than the surcharge originally proposed in 2022. “Higher Investment Tax Credits and higher energy forecasts are two of several factors that reduced the net amounts needed to be collected from customers through the surcharge.”
Originally proposed at 42 cents per month for an average residential bill, the proposed rate has dropped to 14 cents per month, Mon Power said. “It is our hope that the surcharge revenue requirement continues to decrease so that future solar customers will pay 100% of those costs and that no other customer will be required to pay any of those costs for existing and new projects.”
SREC subscriptions cost 4 cents per kilowatt hour in addition to normal rates. The program is an additional cost and does not offset any portion of a customer’s bill. Customers may choose from a variety of SREC subscription levels and term lengths with pricing options that allow for broad participation in the West Virginia solar program, Mon Power said in May 2022.
The companies’ April petition notes that they are making arrangments with suppliers to source project components from U.S. sources in order to satisfy domestic content requirements.
The other two solar plant locations are a 51-acre site in Wylie Ridge, adjacent to a Mon Power substation in Hancock County; and a 44-acre reclaimed strip mine property near Davis in Tucker County.
They project a total capital cost for all five sites at $110 million. Fort Martin, where pre-construction is underway, is expected to be online by the end of this year; the other four projects are expected to come online in 2024 and 2025.
Email: dbeard@dominionpost.com
