Allegheny Energy
Encyclopedia
Electric utility
An electric utility is a company that engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major provider of energy in most countries. It is indispensable to factories, commercial establishments,...
headquartered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Greensburg is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, and a part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The city is named after Nathanael Greene, a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War...
. It owns and operates electric generation facilities and delivers electric services to customers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. Allegheny Energy was incorporated in Maryland in 1925.
However, some of its predecessor companies have been serving their communities for over a century.
The company has three primary businesses: merchant generation, which operates power plants primarily in Pennsylvania and West Virginia; transmission expansion; and utility operations, consisting of transmission and distribution operations serving 1.6 million customers, primarily in small towns and rural areas.
Southwestern Pennsylvania, excluding the city of Pittsburgh, provides about half of regulated utility revenues.
Subsidiary companies
Allegheny Energy operates its electric distribution operations under the trade name Allegheny Power. Its regulated subsidiaries are West Penn Power (Pennsylvania), Monongahela Power (northern West Virginia), and The Potomac Edison Company (western Maryland, parts of eastern West Virginia, and northern Virginia). The electric generating plants are operated by subsidiary Allegheny Energy Supply Company and Monongahela Power. Subsidiary companies have been established for proposed transmission line projects.Allegheny Energy formerly operated in sections of eastern Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, until early 2006, when regulatory issues within Ohio forced them to sell the territory to Columbus Southern Power, a division of American Electric Power
American Electric Power
American Electric Power is a major investor-owner electric utility in various parts of the United States. AEP ranks among the nation's largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S...
, Inc. http://www.alleghenypower.com/CSC/Choice/OH/OHChoice.asp
In 1999, Monongahela Power purchased the distribution assets of West Virginia Power, a utility owned by UtiliCorp United
Aquila, Inc.
Aquila, Inc. was an electricity and natural gas distribution network headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri in the United States. The company also owned and operated power generation assets...
based in Lewisburg, West Virginia
Lewisburg, West Virginia
Lewisburg is a city in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 3,830 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Greenbrier County.-Geography:Lewisburg is located at ....
. West Virginia Power's operations were centered on portions of southeastern West Virginia. It is said UtiliCorp sold the subsidiary to concentrate on its main operations in the midwestern US. UtiliCorp had purchased the division from Dominion Resources
Dominion Resources
Dominion Resources Inc. , commonly referred to as Dominion, is a power and energy company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia that supplies electricity in parts of Virginia and North Carolina and supplies natural gas to parts of West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and eastern North Carolina...
in 1986, of which it had operated as the West Virginia Power division of Virginia Electric & Power Company (VEPCO).
In 2010, Allegheny officially sold their Virginia service area. Areas along and west of Interstate 81
Interstate 81
Interstate 81 is an Interstate Highway in the eastern part of the United States. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 40 in Dandridge, Tennessee; its northern terminus is on Wellesley Island at the Canadian border, where the Thousand Islands Bridge connects it to Highway 401, the main freeway...
were purchased by Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative of Mount Crawford, Virginia
Mount Crawford, Virginia
Mount Crawford is a town in Rockingham County in Virginia, United States. It is included in the Harrisonburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the town's population was 433 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
, while areas to the east were sold to Rappahannock Electric Cooperative of Fredericksburg, Virginia
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Fredericksburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia located south of Washington, D.C., and north of Richmond. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,286...
.
Merger
In February 2010, Allegheny announced plans to merge with FirstEnergyFirstEnergy
FirstEnergy Corp. , is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services...
. The merger was completed on February 25, 2011.
Customer service
Allegheny Power was ranked number one in customer satisfaction among utilities in the northeastern United States in 2010, according to TQS Research. The recent recognition marks the sixth consecutive year large commercial and industrial customers have rated Allegheny Power the region’s top performer.Environmental policies, practice and record
Allegheny has indicated that its policy is "to produce and distribute electricity in a reliable and responsible manner that protects its personnel, communities, customers, and the environment."In February 1995, the company signed a participation accord with the United States Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
as a participant in the Climate Challenge Program. Under this accord, Allegheny Energy agreed to reduce its greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
emissions (as carbon dioxide equivalent
Carbon dioxide equivalent
Carbon dioxide equivalent and Equivalent carbon dioxide are two related but distinct measures for describing how much global warming a given type and amount of greenhouse gas may cause, using the functionally equivalent amount or concentration of carbon dioxide as the reference.- Global warming...
s) by two million tons per year by 2000. Through a series of reduction efforts including demand side management programs, heat-rate, and efficiency improvements on generation equipment, transportation alternatives, and land-use management involving forestation and vegetative sequestration efforts, Allegheny was able to achieve just under 8.5 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent reductions. These reductions fulfilled the company’s Climate Challenge commitment goal by the calendar year 2000.
Carbon dioxide reduction efforts have continued since 2000, and Allegheny has since recorded another 9 million tons of avoided emissions through continued efficiency improvements, demand-side management measures, and vegetative sequestration.
The company complies with current sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...
emissions standards through a system-wide plan combining the use of emission controls, low sulfur fuel and emission allowances. Allegheny has taken steps to significantly reduce sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...
emissions at its generating facilities, investing $1.3 billion to install clean air technology at both the Hatfield’s Ferry and Fort Martin power stations. With the addition of scrubbers at these plants, 85 percent of its coal-fired fleet now utilizes the best available controls for reducing sulfur dioxide emissions. Allegheny now has one of the cleanest fleets in the United States with respect to sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...
. The scrubber projects will also significantly reduce mercury emissions at these power stations.
2005 litigation
In 2005, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of PennsylvaniaUnited States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
The United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania sits in Pittsburgh, Erie, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It is composed of ten judges as authorized by federal law. The Honorable Judge Gary L. Lancaster is currently Chief Judge of the Western Pennsylvania District...
against Allegheny Energy. The suit claimed that Allegheny Energy has made major upgrades at its Armstrong, Hatfield's Ferry, and Mitchell electric generating stations, having dramatically increased emissions without installing new pollution controls required by the Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act
A Clean Air Act is one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of airborne contaminants, smog and air pollution in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans...
.
A trial was held in 2010. No decision has yet been issued by the court. But in the five years elapsed between the filing of the suit and the trial, the company's sulfur dioxide emissions profile improved significantly. The scrubbers at Fort Martin and Hatfield’s Ferry, completed in 2009, now remove approximately 95 percent of the sulfur dioxide emissions at those facilities, totaling more than 200,000 tons annually from the two plants. Mercury emissions at the facilities have also dropped significantly as as result of the scrubbers.
At the time the suit was filed, opponents claimed that the plants were emitting thousands of tons of pollution each year, including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, which were allegedly wind-blown into New Jersey. They also claimed this causes smog, acid rain, and different respiratory disease. "New Jersey continues to pursue litigation to protect our citizens' health and meet clean air quality standards," Gov. Jon S. Corzine said. "This decision proves that New Jersey can and will pursue action to enforce the Clean Air Act's protections even when the federal government abdicates its own responsibility to do so." The 2005 suit claimed that three plants at issue in the litigation were at the time emitting in total hundreds of thousands of tons of pollutants a year. It also claimed that the three plants were putting out more nitrogen oxide emissions than all the power plants in New Jersey combined and more than three times the total amount of sulfur dioxide emissions emitted by all New Jersey power plants. The 2005 litigation also claimed that the Hatfield's Ferry plant was at that time the fifth largest single source of sulfur dioxide emissions in the country. The suit claimed violations of Pennsylvania's air pollution laws and regulations. New Jersey sought injunctive relief to require Allegheny to reduce its harmful emissions by installing up to date pollution controls at each of the three plants. The states also asked the court to apply penalties and order Allegheny to take additional appropriate actions to make up for the harm done to public health and the environment by its violations of federal and state law.
See also
- Logans Ferry Mine TunnelLogans Ferry Mine TunnelThe Logans Ferry Mine Tunnel consists of a pair of abandoned coal tunnels under the Allegheny River between Plum and Springdale, Pennsylvania in the United States.-History:...
built by West Penn Power (Pennsylvania), a predecessor company