West Virginia has been a significant exporter of electricity for many years. At our peak generation output, the state produced three times more electricity than was used in the state, exporting over 65% of our production.
West Virginia has historically relied on coal as its primary generation fuel, but that is slowly changing. In recent years, over 900 MW of renewable generation capacity, mostly wind turbines, have been built in West Virginia. The Public Service Commission has granted siting certificates for two more facilities totaling 165 MW and is considering applications for an additional 333 MW of capacity. I expect this trend to continue.
The Commission is required by law to review applications for the construction and siting of electric generating facilities by non-utility independent power producers (IPP). The Commission has modified its rules and now requires less information from applicants for solar or wind IPP generating facilities than it does from applicants for fossil fuel IPP facilities.
Last year, the Legislature passed a law that encouraged solar facilities by making it easier for retail electric customers to contract for on-site solar energy facilities by allowing non-utility developers to install and operate solar facilities at or near a consumer location without going through the Commission’s siting process if the output is sold to that consumer.
West Virginia is an ideal location for electricity to be generated using renewable resources. Our location relative to large eastern electricity loads; availability of generation sites; our transportation facilities, including river transportation; a large, interconnected electricity grid; and a reliable work force hungry for jobs can lead us to the forefront of renewable resource electricity generation.
Existing fossil fuel-fired generation plants in West Virginia could help solve reliability problems inherent in generation from solar and wind resources through the use of battery storage. Excess energy is necessary to store energy so installing more wind and solar capacity than is needed could be the source of excess electricity used to charge batteries. However, no amount of excess solar capacity will charge batteries at night and very large amounts of excess wind capacity would be needed to support sufficient battery storage to provide stability and reliability. Why not match our West Virginia fossil-fueled power plants with storage facilities and renewable generation to provide reliable, always-available electricity that could be delivered anywhere in the PJM or neighboring transmission systems?
Partnering renewable generation facilities with our existing power plants may be unpopular with those who dislike fossil fuels, but I am not suggesting increasing fossil fuel capacity. Rather, I suggest using existing plants to provide the backup and storage charging support to solve the reliability problems caused by the intermittency of solar and wind facilities.
There is a promising future for West Virginia by increasing renewable generation and an economical answer to the reliability problems of intermittent electricity. We can encourage renewables by teaming up existing West Virginia power plants for backup and around the clock storage charging with new intermittent solar, wind and storage facilities.
