Sunset at Harris Riverfront Park

Seen this 80-degree evening in late February as dozens of people enjoyed a Friday by the Ohio River.

This is a popular place in the Huntington, W.Va., area to get sunset pictures, by the way.

Power plant ownership changes

American Electric Power and Dynegy have agreed to trade their ownership positions in two power plants, including the Zimmer plant along the Ohio River near Cincinnati.

Dynegy will take AEP's stake in Zimmer while AEP will take Dynegy's ownership share in a plant at Conesville, Ohio.

This is another step in AEP's effort to divest itself its generating assets in Ohio, especially coal-fired ones. FirstEnergy, which owns the Pleasants Power Station at Willow Island, W.Va., is. While that plant is in West Virginia, it supplies power to a FirstEnergy subsidiary in Ohio. FirstEnergy is trying to move that plant to its West Virginia operations.

From the AEP news release:

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 23, 2017 – American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) today signed agreements to sell AEP’s 330-megawatt (MW) share of the Zimmer Plant to Dynegy and to purchase Dynegy’s 312-MW share of Conesville Plant. AEP and Dynegy co-own both plants.  

“AEP’s long-term strategy has been to become a fully regulated, premium energy company focused on investments in infrastructure and energy innovations that benefit our customers. These transactions simplify the ownership structures for two of our remaining competitive generation assets as we continue the strategic evaluation to determine the future for those power plants,” said Nicholas K. Akins, AEP chairman, president and chief executive officer.

The transactions are expected to close in the second quarter of 2017, subject to regulatory approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and will not have a material impact on AEP earnings.

There will be no employment impact from the ownership transfers as AEP already operates Conesville Plant and Dynegy operates Zimmer Plant.

AEP currently owns 2,725 MW of competitive generation in Ohio. After the transaction is complete, AEP would own 92 percent, or 1,461 MW, of Conesville Plant; 595 MW of Cardinal Plant; 603 MW of Stuart Plant and the 48 MW Racine Plant. Dayton Power & Light owns the remaining 129 MW of Conesville Unit 4.

Dynegy is part-owner of the Stuart and Killen power plants in Adams County, Ohio. The partners in those two plants haves said they want to shut them down by mid-2018 if they can get regulator approval.

AEP recently sold the Gavin power plant at Cheshire, Ohio, as part of its exit from Ohio-based generation.