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Point Man for Next Generation Power Plant From Tucker County

Posted on: Friday, 20 January 2006, 00:00 CST

By CHRIS STADELMAN

FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Frank Pifer was so good at running power plants for American Electric Power they gave him a real challenge: manage a plant that doesn't exist yet.

Pifer, who grew up in Tucker County, has the official title of manager of IGCC operations and commissioning in the company's Engineering, Technical and Environmental Services organization. It's a complicated title for a complicated project.

IGCC stands for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, which is a new type of power plant AEP is planning to build by 2010 that will burn coal using a different process that produces far fewer emissions.

People who watched Gov. Joe Manchin deliver his State of the State speech last week probably heard him conquer the lengthy phrase.

Manchin touted AEP's request for a certificate of need to build the plant in West Virginia. The company also is considering a Kentucky location.

The result would be a $1 billion coal-fired power plant.

Pifer's job is to assemble the team that will get the plant going.

AEP has said it needs 1,200 megawatts of additional generating capacity by 2010. The company has said the three most promising sites for the plants are adjacent to its Mountaineer Plant in Mason County; across the Ohio River in Meigs County, Ohio; and in Lewis County, Ky.

The company said last year that it intends to build its first IGCC plant - a 600-megawatt facility - in Ohio if it gains assurances from its Ohio regulator that it will recover its costs. Last March the company filed a cost recovery plan in Ohio.

The technology converts coal into gas and moves it through equipment to remove pollution before the gas is burned in turbines that drive electric generators, according to AEP.

The heat produced by the gas turbines is recovered in boilers that produce steam to drive a steam turbine also coupled to an electric generator. The whole process results in fewer emissions of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, particulates, mercury and carbon dioxide, the company says.

Pifer, 41, won't have a say in whether the plant is built in his home state or nearby, but he will play a role in many other aspects of the operation.

"This announcement is the biggest thing happening in the utility industry not just in America but worldwide," he said. "There's a lot of eyes on it. Someone's got to take a step out there and do it."

After graduating from Tucker County High School in 1982, Pifer got his mechanical engineering technology degree and played football at Fairmont State College.

"That's the only reason I went to college, really," he said of his time on the offensive line for the Falcons.

The summer after graduating in 1987, he went to work for AEP and hasn't left the company since. He's moved around plenty within it, however.

He started at the John Amos plant outside of Charleston, moving up through the ranks there over a dozen years. Then he moved to the Kanawha River plant in Glasgow, when he became plant manager in 2000.

After that he moved to the Sporn Plant in Mason County, where he served as plant manager until taking the new role early this year.

His job? "Be ready to operate when they give us the keys," he said. "We will build the team that operates the plant."

That will include helping with personnel decisions as well as creating the operation, safety and training procedures. It's an intimidating task since the success could affect how future generation plants are built and how coal is used in the future.

"I've been able to have some pretty good luck in the jobs I've had. I've been able to produce some pretty good results," he said, noting his expertise isn't on the technical side in spite of his degree. "I guess the main thing is to know what your people can do, to get them in the right position.

"You get the right person with the ability to learn and willingness to learn, you can teach them anything."

Pifer said the self-reliance and leadership skills he learned as a child also continue to serve him well now that he's moved to an upper level job in Columbus, Ohio.

His father, Dennis, ran a small store in the Tucker County community of St. George. The elder Pifer also worked in logging. Frank Pifer said both his father and his mother, Jane, worked hard and set a good example for all their children.

"They taught us how to work, and they made us work hard," he said. "We cut grass, hauled wood, made hay and several other jobs for almost anyone in the community. We hated it at the time, but as I said this taught us that by working hard, you get rewarded. We always had a dollar or two in our pockets, and as we grew up, we had several bicycles, motorcycles, snowmobiles and cars.

"These toys weren't the best, but we paid for them with money we had earned. And we tried to take care of them, to some extent, because we knew if we tore them up who would be buying the parts. In short, they taught us to work hard, be responsible for your actions, treat people with respect, be honest and treat people right, and that's the basics of leadership."

He now has his own family: wife Kelly, who graduated from WVU, and children Molly, 15, Emily, 14, and Isaac, 10. He said other than wanting to use his college degree, he really hasn't had a plan for what comes next professionally.

"I've never really given it a thought," he said. "I take a job, do it, and see what comes next."

-30

Source: Charleston Daily Mail

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