Tag Archives: rate increase

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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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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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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Regulators order end to Kemper rate increase, plan refunds

19gibo.AuSt.77JACKSON, Miss. 7/7/1 –  Regulators on Tuesday ordered Mississippi Power Co. to lower rates later this month and plan for customer refunds by November.

In issuing the order, the Mississippi Public Service Commission voted 3-0 to comply with a state Supreme Court order that found illegal a 2013 rate increase for the $6.2 billion plant.

Read the whole article: The Sun Herald

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Regulators Discuss Kemper Refunds for Miss. Power Customers

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) 7/7/15 — Mississippi regulators plan to discuss at a Tuesday meeting how to obey a state Supreme Court order to refund about $350 million that Mississippi Power Co. has collected from customers to build a power plant in Kemper County.

The Supreme Court ruled in February that an 18 percent rate increase was illegal because regulators didn’t conduct hearings to ensure Mississippi Power was spending prudently on the $6.2 billion Kemper plant. It also ruled that regulators used an illegal rate structure, didn’t notify all ratepayers and broke public meetings law by negotiating a deal in private.

The Public Service Commission, Mississippi Power and some business groups asked the court to reconsider, but the court reaffirmed its ruling in June.

Now, commissioners must sort out how the refunds will be issued.

Read the whole article: The Jackson Free Press

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Big utility rate hikes need more scrutiny

AR-150629352.jpg&maxw=800&q=90

South Carolina 6/28/15 — With SCE&G’s electrical rates growing 26 percent over the last five years, protecting the consumers’ interest has never been more important.

Unfortunately, the consumer was the loser in the state’s recent decision to allow the utility to keep confidential part of its rate hike request.

The information in question dealt with financing costs for the construction of two new nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer site in Fairfield. SCE&G claimed the information contained “trade secrets” protected under the Freedom of Information Act.

Read the whole article: Charleston Post & Courier

 

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More Construction Delays Put Focus on Vogtle Project’s Economics

ENRSE_VogtleDelays

by Scott Judy
ENR 6/24/15 — As continuing construction delays cause financing and related costs to mount, time is starting to put “significant” strain upon the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project’s economics, according to recent testimony presented to the Georgia Public Service Commission by Georgia Power, state monitors and others. As a result, considerable discussion at the recent June hearings focused on whether completing the nuclear project still makes economic sense.

Read the whole article: ENRSoutheast

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