COLUMBUS Agency expects more power-plant proposals

One of the new projects is in Columbiana County.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- Ohio could see at least one major request for a power plant site in 2003, Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chairman Alan R. Schriber said.
The number of applications for power-plant sites has been pretty stable over the last few years, he noted.
"There is a need for baseload," Schriber said Monday, referring to the industry jargon for the large-scale, nuclear or coal-fired power plants.
"I expect to see one siting application for baseload, at least, for northern Ohio and possibly one for southern Ohio."
Schriber, also chairman of the Ohio Power Siting Board which approves the construction of power plants, said the stream of applications for new power plants has been consistent.
"The last three or four years there have been the same number of approvals," Schriber said.
"We had expected that to soften," Schriber said, citing a recessionary economy. "But most are still going forward."
Columbiana project
According to the PUCO, one of the six new projects approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board in 2002 was the Columbiana County Energy Electric Generating Facility.
Columbiana County Energy, a subsidiary of Cogentrix Energy, Inc. was approved to build a 1,200-megawatt combined-cycle, natural-gas fired electric power generating facility, according to PUCO records. The Columbiana County facility is expected to cost $660 million.
Contributing to the numbers of power-plant applications over the past few years has been Ohio's reputation as having some of the best siting laws in the country, Schriber said.
The state also has an abundance of transmission lines and access to water, the PUCO chairman said.
Since Republican Gov. Bob Taft was elected in 1998, the Power Siting Board has supported the development of 25 new power plants in the state, the PUCO said. Over the next six years, these plants could boost generating capacity more than 40 percent from 1998, the PUCO said.
Meeting demand
Deb Strohmaier, a spokeswoman for American Electric Power, which has 1.3 million electricity customers in Ohio, said power supply in the state is keeping with up with demand for now.
"We're good. We have a reserve margin," Strohmaier said. "We've got adequate supply for now until there's a huge influx of business into the state, whether that's manufacturing or steel mills or what have you."
Strohmaier made a distinction between the major, coal-fired or nuclear-powered plants that are running all the time and the generally smaller "peaking" plants that are usually natural gas powered and are usually on only during peak electric use.
A business decision
But she said the principles are the same when companies determine whether to build plants in Ohio.
"One of the determinants is going to be: Can a company make a return on its investment?" Strohmaier said. "Ohio is a restructured state, there is no guarantee on rates. It's going to be a business decision."
Ohio Consumers' Counsel Rob Tongren, the state's residential utility advocate, agreed that power supply was keeping up with demand and said he believed that Ohio's electric restructuring laws plus tax incentives for the construction of power-generating facilities have also contributed to the number of power-plant siting applications.