A purchasing agreement could give new life to the Pleasants Power Plant. (File photo)

CHARLESTON — The Pleasants Power Plant near St. Marys could find a new lease on life, switching from producing electricity to producing hydrogen.

According to a statement from Pleasants County Commission President Jay Powell Tuesday morning, California-based Omnis Fuel Technologies signed a purchasing agreement with Texas-based Energy Transition and Environmental Management, the owners of Pleasants Power.

“On behalf of Pleasants County and the State of West Virginia, I am thrilled to announce we can now celebrate our largest victory to date, as the purchase agreement has been signed by Omnis with ETEM and Energy Harbor,” Powell said. “The agreement gets us one gigantic step closer to being able to continue the storied future of Pleasants Power station. It is truly miraculous how far we have come in a short period of time.”

Both ETEM and Omnis signed a letter of intent at the beginning of June to explore the possibility of purchasing the plant from ETEM, which had planned to demolish Pleasants Power. Omnis plans to use the plant to produce hydrogen using natural gas and other hydrocarbons with the goal of producing net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy Harbor, formerly FirstEnergy Solutions, has been leasing Pleasants Power from ETEM after previously owning the plant. In a letter last month to regional wholesale energy transmission company PJM Interconnection, Energy Harbor asked to change Pleasants Power’s status to “mothballed” through July 31 while negotiations between ETEM and Omnis continued.

According to Powell, Omnis still needs to secure key approvals in order to begin producing hydrogen at the plant, including from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“It is not the last milestone needed,” Powell said. “It would be premature to cut the ribbon yet, but this victory is worthy of celebration, as the team only the good Lord could captain has worked tirelessly to get us to this point.”

Powell praised the West Virginia Public Service Commission, the Public Energy Authority, the Legislature, the Department of Commerce and Gov. Jim Justice for helping to promote the plight of plant and find solutions. A spokesperson for Justice confirmed they were told about the purchasing agreement Tuesday morning.

Powell also praised FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiaries Monongahela Power Co. and Potomac Edison Co. The two companies were considering leasing the plant for a 12-year period while they considered retiring another plant and purchasing Pleasants Power. The companies were seeking a temporary $36 million surcharge on its North Central West Virginia and Eastern Panhandle ratepayers to cover the cost.

Energy Harbor announced last year it would shut down Pleasants Power at the end of May. The plant was first slated to be shut down in 2018, but deactivation was delayed to 2022. Deactivation was put on hold again in 2019 thanks to a tax break approved by the Legislature. Powell said he was thankful the plant could help provide a clean energy future.

“Only the good Lord knows if Pleasants Power will revolutionize the energy world sooner than later, but today we are celebrating the potential opportunities that lie ahead of us,” he said. “This is a plant that was supposed to be scrapped and taken away on barges and now is not only preparing to run again soon, but it has the potential to run in a revolutionary way that no earthly being would have ever anticipated just a short time ago.”

Both of Pleasants Power’s units went online 42 years ago. The 1,300-megawatt, coal-fired power plant directly employs 154 workers and thousands of temporary union workers during maintenance periods with a $400 million economic impact for Pleasants County and the surrounding Mid-Ohio Valley.