by Joeff Davis

7/19/13 ATLANTA – Less than one week since the Public Service Commission’s vote to force Georgia Power to increase its use of solar energy, the state utility regulatory agency is hearing about another contentious issue involving the massive utility.

Yesterday’s PSC hearing focused on whether Georgia Power will be allowed to increase what its customers pay to cover cost overruns for the construction of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. Ratepayers already pay an additional fee of around 5 percent each month for a “nuclear construction cost recovery fee” to fund the building of the reactors.

Read the whole article: Creative Loafing

from Wire Reports

7/18/13 ATLANTA – Georgia Power executives repeated assurances that the utility would be better at managing costs Thursday in the first day of hearings on raising the construction budget for its work at Plant Vogtle.

The executives fielded critical questions Thursday during their first testimony since announcing the firm could not meet its state-approved budget to build two more nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power has asked to raise the budget for its share of the massive project by $737 million to roughly $6.85 billion.

“The trend is delay and overruns,” Public Service Commissioner Stan Wise said. “Is there any reason to believe the trend is not going to continue through the construction phase?”

Read the whole article: Augusta Chronicle

by Gloria Tatum

7/17/13 (APN) ATLANTA — After weeks of advocacy by environmental groups and their unlikely allies, the Tea Party Patriots, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) on July 11, 2013 voted three to two in favor of an amendment by Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald (District 4) to increase the amount of solar energy in Georgia Power’s energy mix by one percent.

Commissioners McDonald, Tim Echols (District 2), and Doug Everett (District 1) voted in favor of the amendment to Georgia Power’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), while Chuck Eaton (District 3) and Stan Wise (District 5) voted against.

Read the whole article: Atlanta Progressive News

By Joshua Stewart

7/2/13 ATLANTA — The state Public Service Commission votes July 11 on Georgia Power’s 20-year plan, the road map for providing electricity to 2.4 million customers. That includes the mix of fuels the company will use and the efforts the company undertakes to get customers to use less energy.

This happens every few years. But this time, Georgia Power also wants to retire 16 coal- and oil-fired power-generating units at six power plants.

PSC Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald said at a hearing in April that this version of Georgia Power’s plan “is filled with the most-significant issues” of any Integrated Resources Plan in the last decade.

Read the whole article: GPB News

by Michael Grunwald

6/27/13: America is having a solar revolution, and it’s a big deal. Solar installations increased more than 1,000% during President Barack Obama’s first term and contributed nearly half the new power capacity added to the grid in the first quarter of this year. We’ve always gotten energy from the sun—oil, gas and coal are essentially millions of years’ worth of photosynthesized sunlight—but now we’re getting it directly, without drilling or spilling or earth-broiling emissions. Solar prices have plunged 80% since 2009, a boon to installers like SolarCity, Sungevity and Sunrun, which have grown from a few hundred customers to more than 35,000 today. It’s also good for consumers, who can get clean power that’s cheaper than coal in large swaths of the country.

Read the whole article: TIME Magazine

by Matthew Wald

6/11/13 WAYNESBORO, Ga. — The two nuclear reactors rising out of the red Georgia clay here, twin behemoths of concrete and steel, make up one of the largest construction projects in the United States and represent a giant bet that their cost — in the range of $14 billion — will be cheaper than alternatives like natural gas.

The first of the two Vogtle reactors is set to begin in 2017. Construction is one-third complete, at least 14 months behind schedule.

But something else is at stake with the reactors called Vogtle 3 and 4: the future of the American nuclear industry itself.

Read the whole article: New York Times

by Walter C. Jones

4/8/13 ATLANTA — Without saying “I told you so” in so many words, groups opposed to the construction of two additional nuclear reactors at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle are pointing out that their predictions have come true.

“Unfortunately, this is what we had been hearing and expecting. It is absolutely a significant change,” said Elena Parent, executive director of the advocacy group Georgia Watch.

Meanwhile, the company, which is only one of the plant’s owners, says despite construction delays and inflated costs that the doubling of electricity generation at the plant will still benefit its customers.

Read the whole article: Augusta Chronicle

Read the 8th Vogtle Construction Monitoring Report

Plant Vogtle Project $1.6 billion Over Budget and Climbing

by Bobby Baker

The construction cost of Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 (“Project”) has increased from $14 billion to $15.6 billion and more cost increases are coming. Georgia Power Company (“Company” or “GPC”) filed its Eighth Semi-Annual Construction Monitoring Report (“8th CMR”) last week with the Georgia Public Service Commission (“PSC”), and there were several major disclosures buried in the report.

Tucked away in the 8th CMR were several significant facts that the Company didn’t emphasize. First, Georgia Power lowered by $1 billion its “value to customers” projection from its last report filed 6 months ago. Second, while the Company is asking the PSC to increase the certified capital cost of the Project by $381 million, its own numbers scattered throughout the 8th CMR, indicate their share of the total Project costs have increased by $737 million. Third, the Company recognizes the Project is 18 months behind schedule. Finally, what isn’t mentioned, but is very important, is any claim or assertion that module fabrication has begun again at the Project site. Ratepayers should be very concerned considering all of these factors.

Read the whole article: Freeman Mathis & Gary, LLP LAWLINE

Read the 8th Vogtle Construction Monitoring Report