Columbus-based American Municipal Power Inc., which supplies power to Oberlin, Wellington, Amherst and Grafton, announced plans Wednesday for the likely conversion of a controversial $3.9 billion coal-fired power plant to be built on the Ohio River to natural gas and other cleaner fuels.

The switch came as a result of a 37 percent increase in some capital costs for the pulverized coal facility with ammonia scrubbing emission control technology, according to Kent Carson, a spokesman for AMP.

Details are sketchy, but the utility will explore developing the project as a natural gas combined cycle facility supplemented with market purchases and possible biomass or another advanced energy technology, Carson said.

If the project had continued as a coal-fired plant, Oberlin would not have purchased energy from it.

In February 2008, Oberlin City Council voted 4-to-3 to withdraw from acquiring power from the project. At the time, an overflow crowd protested a 50-year commitment to coal, which is considered a major contributor to global warming.

Oberlin City Manager Eric Norenberg said Wednesday he cannot predict what the city will do now that the utility plans to convert the plant to natural gas and cleaner energy sources. Oberlin is exploring other options to supply its residents with electricity such as landfill gas and is getting guidance from a consultant, he said.

AMP’s decision thrilled environmentalists, including Josh Mogerman, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“There’s no doubt natural gas is superior to coal,” Mogerman said. “It’s significantly cleaner burning and there’s less air pollution – this shows that Oberlin was ahead of the curve in evaluating this project.”

Carson said input from 81 AMP member communities in Ohio, Michigan, Virginia and West Virginia played a part in the decision to drop the coal-fired plant.

Marc Gerken, AMP president and CEO, said in a news release that communities will be able to secure needed replacement power from softened wholesale power markets.

“We’ve been able to diversify our members’ power supply portfolio with our share of the coal-fired Prairie State Energy Campus (Illinois) scheduled to be online in 2011-12 timeframe and additional hydroelectric generation,” Gerken said. “The conversion of this project from coal to natural gas combined cycle would reduce capital costs and fit well into AMP’s carbon strategy.”

He said the added capital costs resulted in price projections with little or no margins compared to market power, calling into serious question the project’s economic benefit.

Meigs County, where the facility would have been located, is already adjacent to four existing coal-fired power plants.

The Sierra Club applauded the decision in a joint news release from the Sierra Club and NRDC.

Nachy Kanfer, a representative of Sierra Club in Ohio, congratulated the utility and its members for “making a wise choice for Ohioans’ pocketbooks.”

“Not only was the coal plant going to raise people’s electric rates, but it would have added to all the pollution that is making our children sick and roasting our planet,” Kanfer said.

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

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