West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced Thursday that Appalachian Power plans to invest $17 billion in three new natural gas-fired power plants across the state, a commitment the governor’s office is calling the largest single power generation announcement by capacity in West Virginia history. The plants are expected to add a combined 3 gigawatts of generating capacity by 2031.
The announcement came at the governor’s annual energy summit in Charleston, according to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which reported the $17 billion figure will fund three new plants generating a combined 3 gigawatts of power. West Virginia Watch, however, put the new gas generation at 3.3 gigawatts, describing it as enough to power 2.4 million homes for a year — a discrepancy the available reporting does not resolve. WV MetroNews reported the three plants, totaling 3 gigawatts, are expected to be operational by 2031.
Appalachian Power, a subsidiary of Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power, is also pledging a separate $7.5 billion to keep its West Virginia coal-fired plants running through 2050, per the same utility announcement reported across outlets. Combined, the station's report from West Virginia Public Broadcasting described Appalachian Power’s total gas-and-coal spending as close to $25 billion, while West Virginia Watch put the combined figure at $24 billion — again, two different totals that the dossier of reporting does not reconcile.
Jobs and Timeline Still Fuzzy
Job estimates tied to the gas project also diverge depending on the outlet. West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported an estimated 2,100 jobs from the projects, while West Virginia Watch described a little more than 2,000 construction jobs plus 100 permanent positions. Morrisey said the three gas plants will be geographically dispersed across the state, though locations and further project details have yet to be announced, according to West Virginia Watch.
As for whether the buildout will hit household budgets, Morrisey offered his own assurance rather than a guarantee from regulators. “Power bills will not go up; they must not go up because of these new additions,” the governor said, per West Virginia Watch. That statement reflects the governor’s stated position, not an independently verified outcome, and no legal determination on whether project costs can be passed to ratepayers appears in the available record.
Part of a Bigger “50 by 50” Push
The gas and coal commitments feed into Morrisey’s broader “50 by 50” initiative, which aims to roughly triple West Virginia’s power generation capacity from about 16 gigawatts to 50 gigawatts, according to POWER magazine. The governor’s office has said an additional 11.67 gigawatts of capacity has now been announced toward that target, or roughly one-third of what the state says is needed to hit 50 gigawatts, POWER reported. Morrisey has framed the expansion as necessary to attract fast-growing industries like AI and advanced manufacturing, according to West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
The scale of the announcement is drawing comparisons to the state’s power-building past. POWER noted that officials described the commitment as the state’s largest since plans for the 2.9-gigawatt John Amos Power Plant were unveiled in the early 1970s. Other natural gas projects already underway in the state include Mon Power’s proposed 1.2-gigawatt combined-cycle plant at Fort Martin in Monongalia County, estimated at $2.5 billion and projected to open in late 2031, and Competitive Power Ventures’ planned 2.1-gigawatt Shay Energy Center in Doddridge County, which POWER reported was scheduled to begin construction the following year.
Kindle Energy has already broken ground this year on the 600-megawatt Wolf Summit Energy project in Harrison County, according to POWER. Not every gas proposal in the state has been welcomed quietly — West Virginia Watch reported that FirstEnergy’s separate $2.5 billion gas plant proposal in Monongalia County has drawn pushback from residents who say it will raise their power bills, a concern that echoes the uncertainty hanging over Morrisey’s own rate pledge.
As Marcellus Drilling News first flagged, the new plants are also notable for where their fuel will come from: Marcellus and Utica shale gas is expected to be burned at power plants located where it is produced, tying the buildout directly to the state’s existing drilling industry. With locations for the three new plants still unannounced, residents across West Virginia are left waiting to see which communities will host the state’s biggest energy bet in half a century.
