Moundsville, WV: 1971 1.6gw Mitchell Power Plant and Marshall County Coal Mine

Power: (Satellite)

Mine: (Satellite)

Barge Loading: (Satellite)

"Units and In-Service Dates: Unit 1: 816.3 MW (1971), Unit 2: 816.3 MW (1971)" [gem]

This is a new view of a power plant.

Shane's Snapshots posted
W.M. Robinson the boat working at Mitchell Power Plant at MM 113 on the Ohio! Thanks to Bradley for the pic!

The plant has installed a dry fly ash handling system that stores what can't be sold to cement companies in a lined landfill. But there is still the problem of how to deal with the wet ash storage that is on site, and how to fund it. Rate increases have become a political football in Kentucky. [wvpublic] West Virginia has approved the rate increase, but Kentucky has not. Scanning the search results, it seems every they plan to run until 2028, and some think it should run until 2040.

While looking at the satellite image, I noticed that there were more, and bigger, coal piles than is normal for a power plant. I wondered if this was a mine mouth power plant. I did find that the facilities on the east side of Energy Highway are Marshall County Coal.

Satellite

The power plant is on the left and the coal mine is on the right in this street view.

Street View, May 2023

If it was a mine-mouth power plant, then there must have been a disagreement because the coal mine now has a big barge loading facility. Note that it has two loading docks. I included the Kammer Plant land in the lower-left because I have seen evidence that a power plant used to be there. Or maybe Mitchell wasn't a mine-mouth power plant. Maybe the power plant and mine are collocated because this happens to be a flat spot along the river.

Satellite

When one does a Google search for "marshal coal mine," one learns that there is an underground coal mine in Colorado that is burning. Also, Illinois has a Marshall County that has a lot of coal mines. But a search with "marshall coal mine wv" was productive.

July 2026:

Mining #Shorts posted

West Virginia’s Mitchell Power Plant has spent five decades turning Appalachian coal into electricity, and its future is again tied to an investment decision.

Located south of Moundsville in Marshall County, Mitchell entered service in 1971. Its two generating units provide about 1,560 megawatts of capacity, enough to remain part of the regional grid despite operating less frequently than comparable plants.

The station is jointly owned by Appalachian Power and Kentucky Power, both American Electric Power subsidiaries. That shared ownership has complicated Mitchell’s long-term planning, especially as regulators in West Virginia and Kentucky have weighed upgrade costs against the plant’s economics.

Kentucky regulators approved continued ownership in late 2025, removing one immediate threat to the facility. Attention has now shifted toward its cooling system. One of Mitchell’s cooling towers has deteriorated badly, prompting a replacement proposal expected to cost around $191 million.

In June 2026, the plant was selected for $51 million in federal support toward that project. The remaining cost would need to come from utility funding and, ultimately, customers, subject to regulatory approval.

Mitchell has already received environmental work, including scrubbers, dry ash handling and other pollution-control systems. West Virginia regulators previously backed investments intended to keep Mitchell and two other AEP coal plants operating through 2040.

That target still isn’t guaranteed. Low utilization, maintenance costs and changing federal rules continue to shape the debate.

For now, Mitchell remains open, burning coal and supporting the grid. Its next chapter depends on whether regulators approve another costly repair.

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Photo: Google Earth 

Anonymous member posted three photos with the comment: "Photos of Unit 1 at Mitchell Power Station in New Eagle PA that flew apart after over speeding. The other is the 300MW unit 3 at Mitchell that produced 288MW after powering all auxiliary systems. The plant closed down in 2013."

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Comments on the anonymous post

This photo is the evidence that there used to be two power plants here. The one in the background is this Mitchell Power Plant. The one in the middle is gone. The facility on this side of the abandoned power plant is the Marshall barge loading facility. Note that there is the Ohio Valley Transload facility on the Ohio side of the river.

acnrinc

The transload facility on the Ohio side is also labelled Murray Energy Corporation. It can both load (left side) and unload barges. But I don't see any decent rail service nor significant storage capacity. So I don't know what the purpose of this facility is.

Satellite

When I was checking out the CSX/B&O railroad to confirm that this plant uses just barges for coal, I did find some rail service. But it is tank cars.

Satellite

Harsco is now called enviri. I found evidence that they do something with coal piles. But I don't know what they do with them nor why they would need tank cars.

enviri