Appalachian Power Company : By Buddy French
The Appalachian Power Company had its beginnings at Switchback, West Virginia. Yes, its first coal fired electric power plant is the same one we see on the hillside today in the coal camp community of Switchback that is now an abandoned substation.
When the Appalachian Power Company was formed, it bought the Switchback power plant in June 1911 that belonged to the Pocahontas Consolidated Collieries coal company. That coal company continued to supply coal to the power plant from its Delta mine portal behind the present-day James Elwood Jones mansion near the plant. A mine tram road led directly from the mine portal to the power plant. The Pocahontas Collieries Company name was changed to Pocahontas Fuel Company in 1917, and it was later bought out by Consolidation Coal Company which is now Consol Energy.
At the same time this plant was purchased in 1911, Appalachian Power Company began an ambitious construction project building a series of hydroelectric dams on New River in Virginia. When those dams began producing electricity in late 1912, the Switchback power plant was put on standby as a backup power source in case of interruptions to its hydroelectric transmission lines into McDowell County. |
