{{Short description|Coal-fired power plant in West Virginia}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{use mdy dates|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox power station |name = Longview Power Plant |image = |image_caption = |country = United States |location = Monongalia County, near Maidsville, West Virginia | coordinates = {{coord|39|42|27|N|79|57|24|W|region:US-WV_type:landmark|display=inline,title}} |owner = Longview Power |status = O |th_fuel_primary = Coal and natural gas |th_cooling_source = |th_technology = Steam turbine |th_combined_cycle = |ps_electrical_capacity= 700 |commissioned = 2011 |decommissioned = }}
'''Longview Power Plant''' is a coal-fired power plant located near Maidsville, West Virginia. The plant's single unit generates 700 megawatts (MW) of electricity from run-of-mine coal and natural gas.<ref>{{cite news |title=Longview, First New W.Va. Coal Plant in 18 Years, Fires Up This Month |newspaper=The State Journal|date=April 8, 2011}}</ref><ref name="SNL" />
==History== The Longview Power project cost approximately $2.2 billion.<ref>{{cite news |title=Longview Wins Approval to Exit Chapter 11 Protection |journal= Dow Jones Institutional News |date=March 16, 2015}}</ref> After the plant began operation in 2011, construction defects and major changes in the power markets led to the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013. Longview attributed its need for bankruptcy "in large part because [Longview Power] has been plagued by design, construction, and equipment defects and failures …"<ref>{{cite news |title=A Closer Look at the Longview Power Bankruptcy |journal=Fox Rothschild|date=September 8, 2013}}</ref> In early 2015 the company reached a comprehensive settlement of all construction claims, and two of its major contractors agreed to remediate plant defects at their own expense.<ref>{{cite news |title=Longview Wins Approval to Exit Chapter 11 Protection |journal= Dow Jones Institutional News |date=March 16, 2015}}</ref> As a result, Longview Power emerged from bankruptcy in April 2015 with the full remediation of the plant underway and new ownership led by private equity firms including KKR, Centerbridge, Ascribe and Third Avenue.<ref>"PE Firms Increase Stakes in West Virginia Coal-fired Facility" by Fotios Tsarouhis, ''Power, Finance, and Risk'', December 14, 2015.</ref>
Longview was visited in 2016 by West Virginia senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito. Manchin stated the plant was an example of a cleaner future for coal-fired power.<ref name="SNL">{{Cite web|url=https://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/Article.aspx?cdid=A-36196368-12070|title=SNL: Longview touts 155 days of operation as it aims to demonstrate coal technology {{!}} SNL|website=www.snl.com|accessdate=April 25, 2016}}</ref> Ernest Moniz, United States Secretary of Energy, also visited the plant.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://wvmetronews.com/2016/09/12/us-energy-secretary-speaks-on-clean-energy-and-wv-jobs/|title=U.S. Energy Secretary Speaks On Clean Energy And WV Jobs |publisher=West Virginia MetroNews|date=September 12, 2016}}</ref> His successor, Rick Perry, toured the plant in 2017.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2017/07/06/energy-secretary-tour-coal-fired-power-plant-morgantown-rick-perry-clean-jobs-trump/stories/201707060156Gazette|title=Energy secretary promises coal miners, coal plants have a friend in the White House|work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=July 6, 2017|accessdate=November 20, 2018|language=en}}</ref>
The plant previously relied on the Mepco coal mine in nearby Greene County, Pennsylvania, but it was shut down in March 2018 because of declining production and it was not competitive with larger mines in the area that could supply the plant.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2018/03/08/at-greene-county-coal-mine-dwindling-production-means-370-lost-jobs/|title=At Greene County coal mine, dwindling production means 370 lost jobs|last=Frazier|first=Reid|publisher=StateImpact Pennsylvania|date=March 8, 2018|accessdate=August 5, 2019}}</ref>
In February 2019, Longview announced plans to add solar and natural gas generation to its state-of-the-art coal fire facilities. The combined-cycle natural gas facility would have a capacity of 1,200 MW, complementing the coal plant's 700 MW. It would cost about $900 million to build and would be "a very modern advanced gas plant" next to "the cleanest coal plant in America." The 50 MW solar field will cost between $75 million and $80 million.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2019/02/03/Longview-Morgantown-coal-modern-plant-gas-solar-Mepco-Greene-diversification-energy/stories/201901310077|title=Heresy? The operator of the country's 'cleanest, most modern' coal plant is trying out gas and solar|website=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|language=en|date=February 3, 2019|accessdate=February 20, 2019}}</ref> In 2020, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in less than a decade, blaming the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/electric-power/041420-longview-power-files-for-bankruptcy-cites-low-pjm-prices-coronavirus-impact|title= Longview Power files for bankruptcy; cites low PJM prices, coronavirus impact|first=Jared|last=Anderson|date=April 14, 2020|access-date=October 16, 2025|website=S&P Global|language=en}}</ref>
==Environmental mitigation== Longview was constructed as a HELE, or high efficiency, low emissions plant. It has set industry standards for creating cleaner, more reliable power, its efficiency allowing more power to be created from less coal, and in consequence, less environmental impact, whether carbon dioxide ({{CO2}}), sulfur dioxide ({{SO2}}), nitrogen oxide ({{NOx}}), and particulate matter.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wvnews.com/theet/news/free/morgantown-area-coal-fired-plant-is-the-most-efficient-in/article_6a03e751-41e8-5b00-8ac6-494f4c74489e.html|title=Morgantown-area coal-fired plant is the most efficient in North America|last=Young|first=Charles|work=West Virginia MetroNews|date=July 9, 2017|accessdate=November 20, 2018|language=en}}</ref>
Longview is officially a "zero discharge" power plant in West Virginia. All sewage, stack blow-down and other liquid waste are piped to Pennsylvania, where it is discharged into the abandoned Shannopin Mine. The water is then treated and discharged into Dunkard Creek, according to a local environmental group's website.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dunkard.org/mines.html |title=Impacts of Current Mining Activities on Dunkard Creek}}</ref>
Longview includes a new air pollution control system that results in emissions that are among the lowest in the nation for coal plants.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dep.wv.gov/daq/permitting/titlevpermits/Pages/default.aspx |title=Division of Air Quality Title V Operating Permits |publisher=West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection}}</ref> In addition, Longview emits less {{CO2}} than most other coal plants because of its fuel efficiency.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.power-eng.com/articles/print/volume-118/issue-7/features/america-s-best-coal-plants.html |title=America's Best Coal Plants |publisher=Power Engineering |date=July 17, 2014}}</ref> thumb|Longview Power Plant on the right, with Fort Martin Power Plant on the left, as viewed from the Pennsylvania state line ''SNL Financial'' reported in April 2016, on Longview's 155 days of continuous operation during which it exceeded its operational metrics, with steady environmental performance and at an affordable cost. Longview also used some of its fuel flexibility and took advantage of historically low natural gas prices and co-fired natural gas for up to 20% of unit heat input without any additional investment. Longview said its {{CO2}} emissions are about 15% below its peers and that it met its permit limitations despite having some of the most stringent in the nation.<ref>"Longview touts 155 days of operation as it aims to demonstrate coal technology" by Taylor Kuykendall, April 25, 2016, SNL Coal Report, Issue: 90221.</ref>
==See also== * Prairie State Energy Campus
{{Portal|Energy}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
Category:Energy infrastructure completed in 2011 Category:Coal-fired power stations in West Virginia Category:Buildings and structures in Monongalia County, West Virginia Category:2011 establishments in West Virginia Category:KKR & Co. companies Category:Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013 Category:Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020