Author Archives: Glenn

Georgians, get ready for a power bill sticker shock

by 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

PSC members rest eyes, ban critical testimony during Vogtle hearing

by 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

More delays for Plant Vogtle

by 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

Vogtle nukes could encounter more delays, monitors say

by 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

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

A 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

The state creating the most green jobs is…Georgia?

by Anne Fisher

Decatur Self Storage’s array of solar cells Photograph by David Tulis — AP

7/7/15 — An unlikely political alliance in the Peach State has produced a big spike in solar projects.

Green employment in the U.S. is tiny, but it keeps picking up steam. In the first three months of 2015, about 40 new renewable energy and clean transportation projects were launched in 19 states, creating more than 9,800 jobs.

That’s not many, but it’s almost double the number created in the first quarter last year, notes a new report from Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a nonprofit, nonpartisan business group that tracks green employment. Solar power openings grew the most, adding about 6,600 jobs nationwide — about 2,000 of them from five new projects in Georgia.

Read the whole article: Fortune

Challenge of NC law aims to open solar markets

by Bruce Henderson
Greensboro, NC 7/7/15 — When Duke Energy connected the solar panels on the roof of a Greensboro church to its grid last week, solar advocates gained a symbolic but tentative victory.

Faith Community Church serves as a test of a North Carolina law that says only public utilities like Duke can directly sell electricity.

The advocacy group NC WARN owns the $19,000 solar array and wants to sell the electricity it generates to the church, despite the law, for about half what Duke charges.

The challenge, now before the N.C. Utilities Commission, is part of a growing move to bring solar power to rooftops across the state. A bill before legislators would also allow third-party sales, as they are called, by non-utility energy developers.

Read the whole article: The Charlotte Observer

Regulators order end to Kemper rate increase, plan refunds

JACKSON, 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

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

Big utility rate hikes need more scrutiny

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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.