Tag Archives: CWIP

Renewables rise in Georgia Power plan

Southern-AGL.JPEG-0b4bdby Russell Grantham
ATLANTA 2/13/16 — Renewable fuels are poised to grow from a footnote into a small but meaningful part of the picture at Georgia’s biggest electric utility.

By 2020 solar, wind, biomass and hydro will account for 10 percent of Georgia Power’s fuel mix, according to a new long-term plan the company recently filed with state regulators. That’s up from about 7 percent this year, or just 2 percent not counting hydro. In 2005, non-hydro renewables were not even counted in the mix.

Critics say the pace is still too slow. And at least one questions the utility’s overall goal of boosting its capacity buffer — the extra juice it could generate during a severe heat wave or power outages — at a time when demand has been flattened by slower economic growth and better efficiency.

Read the whole article: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Bill calls for halt on Plant Vogtle charge

GranthamRussellby Russell Grantham
ATLANTA 2/9/16 — A trio of Georgia lawmakers want to block Georgia Power from levying surcharges on customers’ bills to finance its long-delayed Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion after 2017.

“Today’s Georgia Power customers stand to pay $1.4 billion more to finance Vogtle construction over the next few years due to major construction delays,” said Rep. Karla Drenner, D-Avondale Estates, sponsor of a bill filed Monday.

In 2009, lawmakers allowed the utility to begin tacking a surcharge on customers’ bills to finance its share of the cost to build two additional nuclear power units at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. The monthly surcharges add about $81 to the typical residential customer’s annual utility bill.

Read the whole article: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Are our Georgia Power bills set to be nuked?

022215-nuke-price-bs8by Matt Kempner
ATLANTA 2/8/16 — Warm up your checkbook and get your debit and credit cards ready. Reckoning day is coming on the most gigantic construction project in Georgia and, in particular, on its blown budget.

This spring the expansion of the Vogtle nuclear power plant near Augusta was supposed to be finished, with the first of two new reactors cranking out electricity for businesses and homes all over Georgia.

Not going to happen.

Read the whole article: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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PSC votes to begin review of Plant Vogtle costs

15093461by Walter C. Jones
ATLANTA 2/3/16 — Electricity customers and the public will get a detailed look at what’s to blame for cost overruns in the construction of two nuclear reactors slated for power generation after a divided Public Service Commission voted Tuesday to begin its examination.

Also, one commissioner called on the legislature to make Georgia Power stop billing customers for the reactors because construction is about to exceed the original completion date.

The detailed probe of what Georgia Power has spent is expected to take 14 months to examine the delays that have added nearly $1 billion to the Plant Vogtle expansion.

Read the whole article: Savannah Morning News

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Georgia Power seeks approval of higher costs at Plant Vogtle

15066713by Walter C. Jones
ATLANTA 1/23/16 — Georgia Power Company wants regulators to bless its share in more than $900 million in cost overruns incurred so far in building two nuclear reactors at the Plant Vogtle generating facility near Augusta.

The company denies its request amounts to approval of the overruns. At least one regulator said his agency can ignore the request until the reactors are generating electricity. And he estimates the impact of the request to be as high as $2.5 billion in added costs to electricity customers.
Company lawyers filed a formal request Thursday seeking approval by the Public Service Commission of the utility’s contract with the new builders.

Georgia Power, which owns 45.7 percent of Vogtle, and the utilities that own the rest of the plant signed an agreement with Westinghouse and with Chicago Bridge & Iron’s Stone & Webster division to design and build two reactors for $6.8 billion. Various problems led to delays and cost overruns, prompting the owners and the builders to sue each in other in 2013 over who would pay the added costs.

Read the whole article: Augusta Chronicle

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Georgians, get ready for a power bill sticker shock

vogtle73015by Tom Crawford
Gainesville, GA 12/16/15 — In the 1970s, Georgia Power started work on two nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro. It was initially estimated that the two units would cost $660 million and take about seven years to build. In fact, the project took nine more years and cost more than $8 billion by the time the reactors actually started generating electricity.

The lesson should have been clear: Nuclear power is very expensive and has significant safety issues, as well. Surely, Georgia Power and the Public Service Commission would be extremely leery about ever approving such a project again.

Read the whole article: Gainesville Times

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PSC members rest eyes, ban critical testimony during Vogtle hearing

stan-wiseby Gloria Tatum
Atlanta 12/14/15 — Georgia Public Service Commissioners struggled to maintain a quorum, and apparently also to stay awake, at Georgia Power’s thirteenth semi-annual Vogtle Construction Monitoring Report (VCM) hearing on December 10, 2015.

Two photographs show Commissioner Stan Wise  (District 5) resting his eyes, during one of the many instances in which Atlanta Progressive News observed Wise rest his eyes for a couple minutes or so at a time.

Read the whole article: Atlanta Progressive News

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More delays for Plant Vogtle

Vogtle.6.13by Walter C. Jones
Atlanta 12/11/15 — Work to add two nuclear reactors to Plant Vogtle is growing further behind schedule, according to experts hired by state regulators to monitor construction who testified Thursday.

William Jacobs, a nuclear engineer who has managed the construction and startup of seven reactors, testified at a hearing before the Public Service Commission that efforts to catch up haven’t been successful. Instead, the commission consultant said delays have gotten worse despite assurances from Georgia Power executives.

Read the whole article: Savannah Morning News

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Vogtle nukes could encounter more delays, monitors say

Vogtle-constructionby Tom Crawford
Atlanta 12/10/15 — Georgia Power’s two nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, already 39 months behind schedule, could encounter further delays before they actually start generating electricity, according to the experts monitoring the project for the Public Service Commission.

The start dates for the new reactors currently are June 2019 for Unit 3 and June 2020 for Unit 4, but the monitors told the PSC Thursday that it was “unlikely” Georgia Power will meet those commercial operation dates.

“From what we’ve seen in the past and what we know has to be done in the future, it will be a challenge to meet those dates,” said Steven D. Roetger, the lead analyst for the PSC.

Read the whole article: Georgia Report

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Consumer, business groups want independent study of SCE&G’s nuclear plant financing method

AR-150819843.jpg&maxw=800&q=90A 2.4-million-pound module that will house components in the first of two new nuclear reactors is moved into place at the V.C. Summer plant north of Columbia. The utility’s financing method is drawing criticism.

by David Wren
Charleston, SC 8/11/15 —  State regulators should review the pay-as-you-go method being used to build a nuclear power plant near Jenkinsville to see if it really is saving money or simply letting South Carolina Electric & Gas pass costs it should absorb on to its customers, the head of the S.C. Small Business Chamber said Tuesday.

A spokesman for the utility, however, said the state already reviews the project’s finances and proposed utility rate increases, all of which are available for public review.

Frank Knapp Jr., the chamber’s CEO, said he’s not convinced the current financing method — under a state law called the Base Load Review Act — is fair to consumers, including the business owners his group represents.

Read the whole article: Charleston Post & Courier

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