by Mary Landers
SAVANNAH 4/8/2017: The costs for Georgia Power’s troubled Plant Vogtle are adding up, but not for the utility or its investors.
Instead, ratepayers are already paying for the two new nuclear reactors, both of which may never produce a watt of electricity. How much have customers already dished out? For southside Savannah customer Cornelia Stumpf, the Vogtle bills already total more than $500.
Read the whole story: Savannah Morning News
by 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
by 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
by Gloria Tatum
(APN) ATLANTA 2/17/16 — A pro-consumer bill, HB 931, co-sponsored by State Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale), calls for an end to the Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery (NCCR) surcharge on Georgia Power electric bills after March 2017.
NCCR is a statewide surcharge that all Georgia Power residential and small business electricity customers pay every month.
It is about eight percent of one’s total bill with additional periodic rate increases.
Georgia Power’s two new nuclear reactors, Vogtle 3 and 4, originally were scheduled for completion in 2017, and at that time the surcharge was to expire.
However, Georgia Power is over three years behind schedule, and almost three billion dollars over-budget, with only 26 percent of the construction complete.
Read the whole article: Atlanta Progressive News
by 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
by 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
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.
by Gloria Tatum
ATLANTA 6/26/15 — July 01, 2015, is going to be a big day. The Solar Power Free-Market Financing Act, HB 57, sponsored by State Rep. Mike Dudgeon (R-Johns Creek), will go into effect, thus opening up solar panel options for Georgia residents and businesses.
On the same day, Georgia Power is planning to announce that one of its unregulated subsidiaries is going to get into the solar panel installation business.
Read the whole article: Atlanta Progressive News
by Ivan Penn
3/2/15 TAMPA — Duke Energy Florida on Monday said it wants to suspend most of the remaining nuclear charge on customers’ bills for the canceled Levy County nuclear plant until it resolves a half-billion lawsuit over the project’s contract.
The proposal would give customers at least temporary relief from a $3.45 charge on the average bill each month, beginning around June 1, about six months earlier than expected.
But there’s a catch: While the proposal, if approved as filed, would save customers money in the short term, they might face far greater costs in the long run.
The proposal involves some complex maneuvering by the utility. At issue is Duke’s lawsuit with the contractor for the Levy project, Westinghouse Electric.
Read the whole article: Tampa Bay Times
by Michael Hinman
11/25/14 FLORIDA — A Tallahassee lawmaker is taking on one major campaign issue from the state’s mid-term elections right away, proposing a bill that would eliminate the ability of utility companies like Duke Energy Corp. to collect money for its failed nuclear plant projects.
State Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, filed H.B. 4001 last Friday. If passed, it would repeal the nuclear cost recovery statute that has put Duke in line to collect more than $3.2 billion from customers through a $3.45 monthly surcharge. It’s supposed to pay for the now-closed Crystal River nuclear facility, as well as a cancelled nuclear power plant in Levy County.
The nuclear cost recovery statute was one of the big issues that affected the governor’s race, as well as some local races, including the one state Rep. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, eventually won. Burgess was forced to defend a $1,000 direct donation from Duke during an October candidate forum, as well as $2,000 of indirect support from Duke through the Republican Party of Florida.
Read the whole article: The Laker – Lutz News