The Pleasants plant entered service in 1980. Source: FirstEnergy

Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. says that its Allegheny Energy Supply business unit plans to deactivate the 1,300 megawatt coal-fired Pleasants Power Station in Willow Island, West Virginia. The plant will be sold or closed on Jan. 1, 2019. The plan is subject to PJM Interconnection's (PJM's) (the regional transmission organization) review for reliability impacts, if any.

FirstEnergy unit Mon Power filed a plan in March 2017 seeking regulatory approval to acquire the Pleasants station for $195 million. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected the proposal on Jan. 12, 2018. The Public Service Commission of West Virginia approved the sale, but attached a number of "significant conditions" that, along with the FERC rejection, made the sale unworkable, the utility says.

Deactivating the plant affects around 190 employees. Affected employees may be eligible to receive severance benefits through the FirstEnergy severance plan if the plant is closed.

Located along the Ohio River, Pleasants Power Station began operation in 1979 and consists of two 650 MW generating units. It was the site of a construction accident in April 1978. Cooling Tower #2 collapsed as it was still under construction, killing 51 workers.

Pleasants was completed in 1980 at a cost of $677 million. In 2008, Allegheny Energy completed a $105 million project to install flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) technology, which reduced sulfur dioxide emissions.

Since 2016, FirstEnergy has announced the sale or closure of 2,471 MW of generation operated in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Following the deactivation of the 1,300-megawatt Pleasants plant, the company will own or control generating capacity totaling approximately 14,795 MW across Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey, Virginia and Illinois.