CHARLESTON W.Va. (WVDN) – A special electric power rate contract that helped secure the location of a $3.1 billion steel manufacturing facility in West Virginia was approved Wednesday in an agreement between Nucor Steel of West Virginia, LLC, and Appalachian Power Co. (APCo).
The 10-year “special contract” was approved by the Public Service Commission of West Virginia.
The rates were not spelled out in the 16-page order, but the document quoted an Appalachian Power official as saying “that it [will] … help lower power rates for all of APCo’s and WPCo’s (Wheeling Power Co.) customers … further … it does not impose an unreasonable burden upon APCo or its other West Virginia customers.”
“In fact, according to petitioners, APCo customers ‘will be better off from an electrical cost of service standpoint’ with Commission approval of the special contract,” the order said.
Under the contract, APCo will provide Nucor with up to 450,000 kilowatts of electric power and will have to construct $149.5 million in transmission lines to the North Carolina company’s planned location at Apple Grove, Mason County.
“The special contract and the rates contained therein ‘played a pivotal role in Nucor’s decision to site its operations in APCo’s service territory’,” the ruling said. The companies filed a joint petition for approval on November 3, 2023.
More information on this case can be found on the PSC website: www.psc.state.wv.us. Click on “Case Information” and access Case No. 23-0865-E-PC.
