About the Cardinal Power Plant

Cardinal Power Plant has three coal-fired generating units of a capacity up to 1,800 MW. It’s situated on the Ohio River in Brilliant, Ohio, about 50 miles west of Pittsburgh and 15 miles north of Wheeling, West Virginia.

Cardinal Unit 1 was previously owned by AEP Generation Resources Inc., AEP’s competitive generation affiliate, and was purchased by Buckeye Power Inc. in August 2022 ending a 50+ year partnership between AEP and Buckeye Power. Unit 1 was placed in commercial service in 1967. Unit 2 was came on-line later that same year and is owned by Buckeye Power. Each unit has generating capacity of 590 megawatts (MW). 

Unit 3, also owned by Buckeye Power, began operation in 1977 and has generating capacity of 620 MW. Buckeye Power operates the facility on behalf of each owner. Read more about the owners and operators of Cardinal Power Plant. Buckeye Power's purchase of Unit 1 paves the way for Buckeye Power to shut down Unit 3 by the end of 2028. 

Over a decade, and culminating in 2012, Buckeye Power invested $1.2 billion in emissions-control equipment on units 2 and 3, making Cardinal Power Plant one of the cleanest power plants of its kind in the world.

With about 300 employees, and scores of vendors and contractors supporting them, Cardinal Power Plant is a major economic force in the region.