Kyger Creek Station

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Kyger Creek Station is an operating power station of at least 1086-megawatts (MW) in Cheshire, Gallia, Ohio, United States.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Plant name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Kyger Creek Station	Cheshire, Gallia, Ohio, United States	38.916236, -82.127689 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the power station.

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Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):

• Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit 4, Unit 5: 38.916236, -82.127689

Project Details

Table 2: Unit-level details

Unit name	Status	Fuel(s)	Capacity (MW)	Technology	Start year	Retired year
Unit 1	operating	coal - bituminous	217.2	subcritical	1955	–
Unit 2	operating	coal - bituminous	217.2	subcritical	1955	–
Unit 3	operating	coal - bituminous	217.2	subcritical	1955	–
Unit 4	operating	coal - bituminous	217.2	subcritical	1955	–
Unit 5	operating	coal - bituminous	217.2	subcritical	1955	–

Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details

Unit name	Owner
Unit 1	Ohio Valley Electric Corp [100.0%]
Unit 2	Ohio Valley Electric Corp [100.0%]
Unit 3	Ohio Valley Electric Corp [100.0%]
Unit 4	Ohio Valley Electric Corp [100.0%]
Unit 5	Ohio Valley Electric Corp [100.0%]

Ownership

The power station is owned by Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC). As of end-2016, the shareholders and their respective percentages of equity in OVEC are:

• AEP (43.47%)
• Buckeye Power (18%)
• Duke Energy (9%)
• FirstEnergy (8.35%)
• PPL (8.13%)
• Wolverine Power Cooperative (6.65%)
• AES (4.9%)
• Vectren (1.5%)

Emissions Data

• 2006 CO₂ Emissions: 7,167,983 tons
• 2006 SO₂ Emissions: 67,157 tons
• 2006 SO₂ Emissions per MWh:
• 2006 NO_x Emissions: 17,863 tons
• 2005 Mercury Emissions: 385 lb.

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Kyger Creek Station

In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from the Kyger Creek Station

Type of Impact	Annual Incidence	Valuation
Deaths	19	$140,000,000
Heart attacks	29	$3,200,000
Asthma attacks	290	$15,000
Hospital admissions	13	$320,000
Chronic bronchitis	11	$4,900,000
Asthma ER visits	15	$6,000

Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011

Coal waste

Kyger Creek ranked 29th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste

In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill. The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.

Kyger Creek Station ranked number 29 on the list, with 1,356,475 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

EPA "high hazard" dam

In November 2011, the EPA released a new set of data that revealed 181 “significant” hazard dams in 18 states - more than three times the 60 significant-hazard ponds listed in the original database released in 2009. In addition to the increase in the number of significant hazard-rated ponds, eight previously unrated coal ash ponds were found to be high hazard ponds in information released by the EPA earlier in 2011. Because of the switch in ratings after the EPA inspections, the total number of high hazard ponds has stayed roughly the same at a total of 47 ponds nationwide.

According to the National Inventory of Dams (NID) criteria, “high” hazard coal ash ponds are categorized as such because their failure will likely cause loss of human life. Six states that gained high hazard ponds include:

• Ohio: Kyger Creek Station, Gallipolis: 2 high hazard ponds

Ohio HB 6 and coal subsidies

In May 2019 the Ohio legislature passed House Bill 6 (HB6) which beginning in January 2020 levied a fee of roughly 58 cents per bill for residential customers and 85 cents per 1,000 kilowatt-hour for commercial and industrial customers. Revenues from these fees are being used to subsidize Kyger Creek and another coal-fired plant, Clifty Creek Station in Indiana. Shortly after the passage of HB6 FirstEnergy also announced that it would delay the planned retirement of its coal-fired Sammis Plant in Stratton, Ohio.

In July 2020 Ohio Speaker Larry Householder (R) and four associates were arrested and charged with coordinating a $60 million bribery scheme with FirstEnergy, in return for which Householder included a bailout for two FirstEnergy nuclear power plants as part of HB6. In August 2020 the Ohio legislature began considering several bills that would partially or completely repeal HB6.

In August 2022, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio revealed that subsidies for the two loss-making plants, the Clifty Creek Station and the Kyger Creek Station, had cost Ohioans $173 million since 2020. In March 2023, a memo to the Ohio Manufacturers Association by energy consultancy Runner Stone estimated the subsidies from HB6 and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for the two coal plants had cost electricity consumers US$400 million since 2017 and could amount to US$845 million by 2030.

In June 2023, it was reported that fifty members of the Ohio state legislature had co-sponsored a bill to repeal HB6. The new bill would end the coal plant subsidy and require Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) to repay the estimated US$400 million in subsidies paid to date. At the same time, filings by the utility companies indicated that they planned to resume collecting subsidies from customers in July 2023, after pausing the charges for the last year.

Later in June 2023, Ohio Republican leadership reportedly voted to block the new bipartisan bill repealing subsidies for the coal plants.

In December 2023, a federal grand jury indicted the former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), Sam Randazzo, on 11 counts of alleged bribery and embezzlement. Randazzo allegedly received a $4.3 million bribe from FirstEnergy in return for helping the utility company advance its policy priorities, including HB6.

According to reporting from March 2024, an email released as part of the legal case over the bribery scandal revealed that American Electric Power, which owns a portion of OVEC, insisted on including coal plant subsidies in HB6.

According to reporting from April 2024, the Citizens Utility Board of Ohio has urged the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to require the owners of Kyger Creek Station and Clifty Creek Station to refund US$100 million in subsidies provided under the provisions of HB6. Consumer advocates said that OVEC ran the coal plants all the time rather than just when costs were lower than market prices, and that electricity customers should not have paid subsidies when the plants were run at a loss.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of coal-fired power stations, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.