At the 90th West Virginia Chamber Annual Meeting & Business Summit in early September, one topic continued to rise to the surface — energy. Numerous topics were covered including the need for new natural gas generation, transmission enhancements within our regional grid, preparing for nuclear energy opportunities and the dramatic growth of energy demand in the coming decades.
Those topics line up with one of the key goals of Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s administration: the “50 by 50” plan. The goal is ambitious — increase West Virginia’s baseload electric-generating capacity from about 16 gigawatts today to at least 50 gigawatts by 2050.
The strategy is designed not only to produce more electricity but also to use West Virginia’s abundant energy resources to attract new businesses, create jobs and help meet regional demand for power.
“West Virginia is demonstrating that we can lead with coal, natural gas, nuclear energy and other forms of reliable energy that power America’s future,” Morrisey said at the September business gathering. “These investments strengthen our position as America’s energy state, create good-paying jobs and help ensure we can meet the nation’s growing demand for reliable, affordable power.”
The regional power market West Virginia belongs to is PJM Interconnection, which coordinates electricity across 13 states and Washington, D.C. It is estimated that PJM will need an additional 100 gigawatts of generation by 2050 to meet demand.
Nicholas Preservati, director of the West Virginia Office of Energy, said West Virginia is well positioned to respond to that enormous growth.
“Electricity demand is growing, and significant new generation is going to have to come online to meet it,” Preservati said. “West Virginia has the resources, workforce and energy experience to play a major role in meeting that demand while creating more economic opportunity here at home.”
Large users of electricity, including data centers, advanced manufacturers and other energy-intensive industries, increasingly consider access to reliable power when deciding where to invest.
Appalachian Power President Brian Abraham put the scale of that demand in perspective at the Business Summit.
“Nucor’s new steel mill will use about 450 megawatts at peak production, while prospective customers are discussing needs measured in gigawatts,” Abraham explained. “West Virginia is on the cusp of an energy demand the likes of which we have never seen.”
Abraham told attendees that four large customers were close to agreements with the utility and could use all the electricity from the expansion projects Appalachian Power has planned.
The 50 by 50 strategy calls for maintaining existing coal-fired generation while adding new capacity from other energy sources.
“This is not a plan built around choosing one energy resource over another,” Preservati said. “Reaching 50 gigawatts will require West Virginia to make use of the full range of reliable energy resources available to us while encouraging new projects and investment.”
Natural gas offers one of the most immediate opportunities for expansion. State officials say outreach to energy companies initially revealed a perception that West Virginia was not interested in new natural gas generation. The 50 by 50 initiative was intended, in part, to send the opposite message: West Virginia wants energy companies to build and invest here.
“West Virginia is at the center of unprecedented energy growth, and we are proud to be a vital part of supporting it,” said Chris Beam, president of FirstEnergy’s Mon Power. “We are planning a 1,200-megawatt combined-cycle natural gas plant in Monongalia County to complement our existing plants to help meet growing customer needs.”
Ensuring that West Virginia has enough natural gas to support that growth is part of the state’s energy strategy. State officials and energy companies have studied the Mountain State’s natural gas reserves and continue to drill new wells to determine whether supplies can keep pace with the nation’s rapidly growing demand for electricity over the next 60 years.
Those efforts have produced encouraging results. Preservati said studies indicate West Virginia has ample natural gas reserves to help meet future demand. Companies currently drilling in the state include Antero Resources, EQT Corporation, Expand Energy and CNX Resources. At the same time, advances in drilling and extraction technology are allowing producers to recover natural gas more efficiently.
More natural gas will also require more pipeline capacity.
At the Business Summit, TC Energy President and CEO François Poirier announced that the company — which operates one of North America’s largest natural gas pipeline networks — plans to invest billions in the Mountain State in the coming years.
“As I look over the next decade in West Virginia, we spent $7.5 billion over the last decade,” Poirier said. “I could see us spending a corresponding amount over the next decade.”
Poirier said the growing demand for natural gas in North America represents an unprecedented opportunity for West Virginia. Greater production, he explained, requires additional infrastructure.
“The more infrastructure we can develop, the more we insulate Americans from global shocks, and we help Americans have affordable, reliable energy,” Poirier said.
Building that infrastructure quickly, however, presents another challenge. Poirier said pipeline projects now typically require 18 to 24 months to secure permits before construction can begin, compared with roughly half that time 10 to 15 years ago.
“We’ve got to get moving faster,” Poirier said. “Energy infrastructure also has implications for national security. You have to have energy security to have national security.”
TC Energy currently employs more than 700 people in the state and has established Charleston as its regional hub for Appalachia.
“We have a lot of ambitions to grow our presence here, and we’re very proud to be here in West Virginia,” he said.
Several other major projects have been announced as well.
In April 2026, officials broke ground on Wolf Summit Energy in Harrison County, a 600-megawatt combined-cycle natural gas power plant. The project, involving Kindle Energy and Blackstone, is the first combined-cycle natural gas power plant of its kind to be built in West Virginia.
Mon Power’s $2.5 billion Monongalia County project will support more than 2,100 jobs during construction and will add $51 million annually in state and local tax revenue.
Calpine announced plans for a more than $1 billion natural gas power plant in Marshall County, while Dominion Energy has proposed a 2.6-gigawatt facility in Grant County.
At the same time, the state is working to preserve and expand coal-fired generation. Investments have been announced to extend the operating lives of existing infrastructure, and the state’s energy policy specifically calls for allowing existing coal-fired plants to remain operational through at least 2050.
Abraham explained that Appalachian Power needs both coal and natural gas as demand grows.
“We need you now; we need 100% of everything you’ve got,” he told representatives of the two industries at the Business Summit. The utility’s recently announced purchase of the coal-fired Longview Power Plant near Morgantown also includes permits for a proposed natural gas plant nearby.
The state has a long way to go before reaching 50 gigawatts. But less than a year after the initiative was announced, approximately 7 gigawatts of new generation projects had been unveiled, representing nearly 20% of the additional capacity needed to reach the 2050 goal.
The extent to which those projects, and others still to come, move West Virginia toward 50 gigawatts will become clear over the coming decades. For state leaders, however, the early announcements represent the first steps toward significantly expanding the state’s role in the nation’s energy economy.
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Amy Deal is a freelance writer living in Barboursville, West Virginia.