Author Archives: Glenn

Time for a nuclear apology from your power company

fanningby Matt Kempner
ATLANTA 3/29/17: Sometimes, even rah-rah cheerleading isn’t enough to make a bad situation look good.

That’s a shame for Georgia Power, because the CEO of its parent has tried to make the company’s nuclear misadventure look like a puffy cloud on a pretty spring day.

Four years ago, when the project to expand nuclear power at Plant Vogtle was already more than a year and a half behind schedule, Southern Co. chief executive Tom Fanning declared that work was moving along in “spectacular fashion.” The company said no further delays were expected on the complex .

Last year, with delays and costs having grown dramatically, Fanning said work on the two new nuclear units was going “beautifully.”

Read the whole story: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Ga. Power takes heat on nuke study costs

GranthamRussellby Russell Grantham
ATLANTA 6/8/16 — Georgia Power officials were grilled by state utility regulators at a hearing Wednesday on why they think customers should pay for a preliminary study for a possible new nuclear plant near Columbus.

The Atlanta-based utility has asked the Public Service Commission to approve $175 million for the study of a Stewart County site as part of its updated 20-year power generation plan.

Those costs, which could ultimately grow to $300 million because of the way they are stretched out, would eventually be paid by Georgia Power’s customers, whether or not the company decided to build the new nuclear plant.

Read the whole article: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Unofficial Business: Ga. Power scopes out new nuke, at our expense

022215-nuke-price-bs11by Matt Kempner
ATLANTA 6/7/16 — Some really great deals are only great if someone else pays for them.

The state’s largest power company has just such a deal for us.

Georgia Power insists it’s really important and prudent to spend nearly $175 million so the company can investigate building a nuclear plant on land it owns south of Columbus in Stewart County. Executives testified that the investment is “in the best interest of its customers.”

But that certainty magically evaporates if Georgia Power has to pay for the exploration itself.

The company – a government-regulated monopoly — said last week that it would pull the plug on its review if state regulators don’t allow it to charge Georgia Power customers for the entire cost of the exploration. Customers should pay even if a plant is never built on the site, according to the company. Those costs would be incorporated in monthly power bills eventually.

Read the whole article: Atlanta Journal & Constitution

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PSC’s McDonald: Non-existent nuke shouldn’t cost customers $175 million

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by Russell Grantham
ATLANTA 6/3/16 —At least one of Georgia’s utility regulators says he doesn’t think Georgia Power’s customers should have to foot a $175 million bill up front to study a potential site for a new nuclear plant near Columbus.

Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald told fellow members of the Public Service Commission Thursday that he plans to introduce a motion in the future that would deny the company’s request for the study funding.

McDonald said his motion wouldn’t prevent Georgia Power from going ahead with the study, but it’s “premature” to ask customers to pay for it before 2019.

Read the whole article: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Unofficial Business: Georgia Power aims to dump its overruns on you

022215-nuke-price-bs18by Matt Kempner
ATLANTA 4/13/16 — What do you call overruns on a project that’s more than three years delayed and at least $1.7 billion over budget?

Reasonable and prudent. At least if you are Georgia Power and you want customers to swallow every penny of the mistakes that would otherwise be the utility monopoly’s responsibility for its adventures in nuclear expansion.

“Every dollar, and every day, that has been invested has been necessary to complete these new units safely and correctly,” Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers asserted in a recent filing to state regulators.

The company uses the words “prudent” and “reasonable” a lot in the filing because that’s the legal measure of whether the extra costs can be pushed onto customers’ monthly power bills for the company’s troubled Plant Vogtle expansion.

Read the whole article: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Six percent of Georgia’s electricity produced by renewables, an oft-overlooked detail

Wind-farm-e1458585058390by David Pendered
ATLANTA 3/21/16 — As Georgia Power proposes to expand its use of renewable energy resources, one part of the conversation that gets scant attention is the considerable amount of energy already being generated from renewable resources.

All told, Georgia Power expects to have nearly 1,000 megawatts of solar resources online or under contract by the end of this year, company spokesman John Kraft said Monday.

Six percent of Georgia’s electricity generation comes from renewable resources, including hydroelectric power, according to a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Residential rates are 17.3 percent lower than the U.S. average, according to the EIA.

Read the whole article: Saporta Report

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Solar energy on cusp of real success in Georgia, panelists say

15205610by Jim Thompson
ATHENS 3/18/16 — The sun may be starting to shine on solar as a viable alternative energy, but cost and scale continue to be issues, according to a panel brought together Thursday night in Winterville to discuss the solar energy industry.

Drew Bowen of Watkinsville-based Turnsol Energy, a solar energy installation company he operates along with Drew Bowen Electric, a traditional electrical installation firm, told a crowd at the Winterville Depot that a few years ago, solar energy conferences he attended were popular among a core group of jeans-wearing advocates. Now, he said, those conferences are attracting “three-piece suits and tassel loafers … There’s money in solar.”

Read the whole article: Athens Banner-Herald

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Georgia Power eyes site for possible new nuclear plant

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by Russell Grantham
3/18/15 — Georgia Power has chosen a site south of Columbus where it may build a new nuclear plant sometime after 2030, according to documents filed with state regulators.

The company said it has not decided yet to build more nuclear plants in Georgia, but confirmed that it has begun preliminary studies for a possible plant on 7,000 acres that it owns next to the Chattahoochee River in northern Stewart County.

The rural county is just below Fort Benning and Columbus in west Georgia.

Read the whole article: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Solarize Athens extends deadline for initiative to boost solar energy use

15202970by Jim Thompson
ATHENS 3/17/16 — Solarize Athens, an initiative to triple the number of solar power installations across Athens-Clarke, Madison and Oconee counties through the bulk purchase of equipment and installation services, has extended its application deadline to April 30.

Colleen McLoughlin, solar campaign organizer for Environment Georgia, one of the environmental groups behind Solarize Athens, said ongoing local interest in the program prompted Solarize Athens to extend the deadline by a month, to give more homeowners and business owners an opportunity to consider installing solar power equipment.

Read the whole article: Athens Banner-Herald

 

 

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Lawsuit seeks return of $2 billion charged to FPL, Duke customers for nuclear projects

700x394-1by Ron Hurtibise
MIAMI 2/24/16 — Florida’s two largest utility companies are the target of a lawsuit claiming a state law that authorized collection of $2 billion for construction of nuclear power facilities is unconstitutional.

The suit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida by Hagens Berman, which describes itself as a “national class action and complex litigation law firm.”

The suit accuses Florida Power & Light, headquartered in Juno, and Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of North Carolina-based Duke Energy Corp., of overcharging its ratepayers.

Relying on a 2006 state law that authorized the Nuclear Cost Recovery System, the utilities turned 6.4 million ratepayers into “involuntary investors in nuclear projects, charges them interest on their own money and never returns their ‘investment,” the suit contends. “When the projects are abandoned, the utilities keep the money and collect even more.”

Read the whole article: Sun Sentinel

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