KEY POINTS
- NRG Energy is weighing a bid for the Pleasants Power Station, a West Virginia coal plant in bankruptcy.
- Owner Omnis Energy wants the Chapter 11 case dismissed, saying the plant should earn $466 million over four years.
- The lender-installed management team blames prior leadership for heavy losses and missed PJM capacity payments.
NRG Energy has emerged as a potential bidder for a West Virginia coal plant that filed for bankruptcy last month with $13 million in cash and several profitable years ahead, a court filing shows.
A motion to dismiss the case on Friday disclosed that NRG is weighing a full acquisition of the Pleasants Power Station or a stake in it. However, NRG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Should the plant be in bankruptcy
According to the filing, a central question is whether Pleasants belongs in bankruptcy at all, given its cash and prospects. Moreover, the plant’s owner, Omnis Energy, asked a federal judge in Delaware to dismiss the Chapter 11 case, arguing the filing lacks justification.
Omnis, led by clean-tech entrepreneur Simon Hodson, said the plant should earn at least $466 million in revenue over four years and an estimated $286 million operating profit. Still, Hodson’s group is fighting a turnaround team that lenders installed earlier this year, which now controls the plant.
Rival accounts of the plant’s woes
The management team blamed prior leadership, saying Hodson failed to convert Pleasants into a clean hydrogen producer. Consequently, it said, the plant missed vital capacity payments from PJM Interconnection, the grid operator that serves 67 million people from Washington to Chicago. Furthermore, team head David Hindman said in a July filing that misconduct, thin working capital and deferred maintenance drove heavy losses from 2023 to mid-2025, and that the FERC opened an investigation into the plant in October 2025.
Omnis rejected any wrongdoing. It told the court that buyers have offered $350 million to $400 million for Pleasants, more than 10 times its 2023 price, and that a sale would repay all the plant’s debt in full. In addition, Omnis argued the new managers lacked authority to file for bankruptcy, and it said the court rejected its $76 million offer to settle the plant’s obligations.
