West Virginians for Energy Freedom (“WV4EF”), a coalition of your neighbors, organizations, local businesses, municipalities, and elected officials advocating for energy freedom in West Virginia, responds here to the request for comments on Governor Morrisey’s Comprehensive Energy Policy. WV4EF supports empowering West Virginians to be free to meet more of their own energy needs if they wish, through generation, efficiency, and backup power; while protecting ratepayers from the costly and inefficient operation of utility-owned power plants.
West Virginia’s small business and residential ratepayers can play a vital role in meeting energy and capacity needs for the state. We offer the following comments on the 50 x 50 Generation Plan, the Transmission Plan, State Energy Security Plan, and 25-Year Strategic Development Plan.
“50 x 50” Generation Plan
Without taking a position on the wisdom of tripling energy capacity in 25 years, we caution that, if West Virginia ratepayers or taxpayers would be required to pay for any of power plants built under this plan, there be guarantees and protections in place to ensure that the plants will be useful and beneficial for West Virginians.
WV4EF agrees that, in order to meet the goal of 35 GW of new generation, we will need to leverage all energy resources to their maximum potential.[1] In addition to the resources already raised by the Governor’s address, a comprehensive energy plan should also attempt to maximize behind-the-meter resources. Customer-sited, distributed scale generation harnesses the economic power of West Virginians and can play an important role in meeting the 35 GW goal. Perhaps more importantly, freeing West Virginians to meet more of their own energy needs will reduce costs not just for themselves (the participating ratepayers), but for all ratepayers. In that spirit, we recommend the following policy changes to West Virginia Code, as a part of the 50 x 50 Generation Plan:
Develop Distributed Power Plants to reduce costs for all ratepayers
Distributed Power Plants, also sometimes called “virtual power plants,” are utility incentives for residential and commercial customers to purchase battery back-up, in exchange for the utility being able to put power onto the grid during peak demand times or times when energy prices are high. This policy makes the 50 x 50 goal more beneficial to West Virginians, in the “backyard brawl” that Governor Morrisey has described in the past, for reasons described below.
Benefits:
Obtaining reduced-cost energy during peak times reduces energy costs for WV utilities.
By reducing peak demands, the requirements by PJM for WV utilities will be reduced. This allows the utilities to buy less (and/or sell more) capacity in PJM’s capacity auctions[2] benefiting West Virginians.
Electric customers that install battery backup through this program will have more reliable service through the batteries. Three of West Virginia’s four major utilities have among the least reliable service in the country.
The fairest and cleanest way to implement this would be to give credits on ratepayers’ bills based on an amount that will be lower than the cost of energy through PJM’s auction, but higher than the cost per kwh for customers.
This policy could also include a requirement that utilities spend a certain amount of annual revenues (Ex: 1% of energy sales) toward demand response and energy efficiency programs, to reduce costs to ratepayers and maximize existing capacity.
Legalize Community Energy
By empowering residential and commercial ratepayers with an option to purchase power from nearby customers, like what industrial ratepayers can do through the Microgrid Bill (HB 2014 of 2025).
Community energy allows facilities that are 5 MW or less to have subscribers from within their utility’s service territory who purchase energy from the facility. In exchange, the subscribers receive an offset on their bill. Community energy can be established to be agnostic as to generation sources or favor certain types of power.
Most surrounding states have a community energy option. Most recently, Ohio’s House of Representatives passed a source-agnostic community energy bill to authorize a community energy pilot program. It is currently pending in the Ohio State Senate.[3]
This is an option for individuals who wish to save money on utility bills, but who are unable to participate in other cost-cutting options.
This also opens financing options for businesses who wish to produce more power to offset their own costs, but would also benefit from larger scale generation (up to 5 MW) than they can actually utilize.
Churches, other nonprofits, and/or local governments may wish to offer this option to their constituencies, to reduce costs for low- to moderate-income individuals.
· Allow Plug-in Solar
Very small (under 1.2 kW) portable solar units can be a way for ratepayers who do not have appropriate facilities for larger solar panel systems to save on their electric bills.
Utah has already authorized this practice in 2025 (HB 340) and other states such as Pennsylvania are considering it. Utah’s law very simply permits these small solar units without having to get an interconnection agreement with the utility, so long as they have protections in place in case of outages.
Permitting this practice can help reduce demand during peak hours, while also giving West Virginia ratepayers a potentially advantageous option for reducing costs if they choose to utilize it.
· Remove the cap on net-metering
Net energy metering (NEM) is the policy whereby electric customers get credit for the electricity they generate from facilities they own, such as solar panels, on their own buildings and land. Currently there is a cap of 3% of load that can be met through NEM.[4]
In the past two years, the NEM credit has gone from a 1:1 credit for customers of the four major electric utilities (based on the retail energy cost per kwh) to a reduced credit rate that is designed to reflect the value of customer-owned solar to other customers.
WV4EF believes that a 1:1 credit was fair, and that no evidence of cross-subsidization was ever shown in the cases. However, there is no question that the current NEM rates are not causing any issue with cross-subsidization, as required under West Virginia Code.
Given the current NEM credit structure, there is no reason to keep the cap. This will allow the free market to determine how many people participate in net metering. Currently, no utility is close to meeting the cap.[5]
Transmission Plan
WV4EF recommends that the Transmission components of an energy plan align with regional planning processes and provide cost protections for customers. To the extent that gas or electric transmission infrastructure is designed to serve large load customers, all other ratepayers should be insulated from the costs of that infrastructure and its stranded asset risk. For example, if a data center needs large amounts of transmission lines to go to its location, there should be requirements in place that include protections to ensure that the data center will be a customer for the utility for long enough to justify the costs.
There are versions of these protections that several utilities around the country have enacted, as well as legislative fixes to this problem. Currently, Mon Power and Potomac Edison have no such protections in place.
Similarly, if there are transmission lines that very clearly are designed to go from a power plant inside or outside of West Virginia, to large load customers out-of-state (e.g., Northern Virginia’s data centers), those costs should not pass on to West Virginia ratepayers or taxpayers.
State Energy Security Plan
West Virginians for Energy Freedom certainly supports the state ensuring against physical and/or cyber attacks on the electric grid. We have no specific recommendations in that regard, other than to note that there are already significant disruptions in service and there are no significant interruptions from fuel or generation insecurity. These disruptions are overwhelmingly caused by rather ordinary issues, like overgrown vegetation, storms, and otherwise failing distribution infrastructure. West Virginians’ energy security can best be improved by a comprehensive energy plan that focuses on reducing the known, already-occurring disruptions to economic stability.
25-Year Strategic Development Plans
Much of the national load growth animating the Governor’s address and rollout of the 50 x 50 plan is attributable to the development of new energy-intensive data center facilities, which pose unique costs and risks in our traditionally regulated energy system. One single data center – by itself – can require all of the capacity from a power plant. But there are no guarantees that any given data center will be a customer of the utility long enough to justify the expense of a new plant. Ratepayers must know that data centers will pay their own way, with real protection from paying for stranded assets.
Economic and Site Development
We have untapped site potential for distributed generation and storage state-wide. Distributed solar resources can be on rooftops and impervious surfaces, with storage available to hang on a basement wall. Maximizing potential for distributed energy development avoids transmission expenses and does not require new site development. Instead of some big government intervention, all distributed generation needs is government to simply allow this sort of economic activity, with some guardrails to ensure success.
Legislation, Regulation, Finance and Tax Incentives
As noted above in the 50 x 50 section, we believe that there needs to be legislation to:
Institute Distributed Power Plants,
Legalize Community Energy,
Allow Plug-In Solar,
Remove the Cap on Net Metering (NEM), and
Protections for existing ratepayers from costs to accommodate data centers.
Other policy ideas to help ensure the 50 x 50 plan is as beneficial as possible for ratepayers:
Energy efficiency utility programs and assistance avoiding shutoffs should be required programs, to ensure that we utilize our state’s resources efficiently.
Commercial property owners should be authorized to utilize “property-assessed clean energy,” a tool for helping businesses manage energy costs, if they wish to do so.
Residential ratepayers should have more protections to avoid shutoffs, in light of ongoing rate increases.
Emboldening and strengthening the PSC’s Consumer Advocate
Energy Workforce and Education
WV4EF supports more training for the ideas mentioned in the request for comments. Additionally, training in building sciences, electricians, and solar installers will be critical for rolling out more energy efficiency and customer-owned utility. It is our belief that the WVOE is already establishing training for building sciences and efficiency as a part of other program implementation. Still, it is worth noting that there are benefits to the 50 x 50 plan that would come from increased efficiency in buildings and customer-owned solar due to reduced peak demand, which affects capacity requirements for our utilities; we need a workforce that can accommodate that development.
Energy Safety and Security
There are two significant issues with West Virginia’s energy security: a lack of diversity and high rates of service interruption.
The reliance on more than three-fourths (75%) of our energy generation from coal-fired generation leaves us susceptible to having more extreme swings in cost due to market forces. While sometimes there can be a cost benefit from coal-fired units, West Virginia ratepayers frequently pay more due to that lack of diversity in our generation. We should be moving toward a balance of generation sources.
Most of West Virginia’s electric utilities are among the least reliable in the country. U.S. News & World Report ranks West Virginia’s power grid reliability dead last.[6] In addition to existing PSC programs to focus on infrastructure maintenance, including vegetation management, residential and commercial ratepayers should be encouraged to have backup batteries. Doing so could help improve reliability statistics for our utilities, and have other benefits for non-participating ratepayers, as outlined elsewhere in these comments.
[1] Gov. Patrick Morrisey, Governor Morrisey Announces Comprehensive Energy Policy Framework to Make West Virginia Energy Dominant (Wheeling, W. Va., Sept. 10, 2025; “To get to our 50 x 50 target, we will have to leverage all of our energy resources and develop all of them to maximum potential. . . .”)
[2] Currently Mon Power and Potomac Edison participate in PJM’s Base Residual Auction (“BRA”), but Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power can only participate in a limited way; however, Appalachian Power, Wheeling Power, and two other AEP subsidiaries have requested authorization to have greater participation in the BRA beyond the current limitations on their participation. See Request for Limited Waiver and Expedited Consideration, FERC Dkt. # ER26-444 (Nov. 6, 2025).
[3] See H.B. 303 (2025), https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/136/hb303 .
[4] W. Va. Code § 24-2F-8.
[5] We believe that NEM capacity for each of our utilities is well under 1% of the aggregate customer peak demand that the 3% cap is based on. According to recent PSC filings, NEM nameplate capacity is at approximately 53.2 MW. Broken down by utility: 21.6 MW – Appalachian Power; 2.2 MW – Wheeling Power; 14.0 MW – Mon Power; 15.4 MW – Potomac Edison. Sources:
[6] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/infrastructure/energy/power-grid-reliability