Tag Archives: GA PSC

Southern Company Stockholder Meeting 2019-05-22

In this year’s pilgrimage to Pine Mountain, we will hear how part of Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning’s compensation will be tied to meeting the company’s low-carbon goals.

When: 10AM, Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Where: The Lodge Conference Center at Callaway Gardens,
4500 Southern Pine Drive, Pine Mountain, Georgia 31822

What: Southern Company 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders

Microgrids and batteries, Annual Report

That Annual Report page on Microgrids and Batteries looks good. Until you start to notice what’s missing from the documents.

Energy Mix, Annual Report So does this comparison of energy mixes in 2007 and 2018, at least as far as “Hydro, Wind, Solar” going from 1 to 11%. However, quite lacking is Continue reading

GA Senate unanimously approved solar financing bill

Friday’s vote started at least a year and a half ago. Organized years-long activism is paying off for everyone.

Summer before last, after statewide requests by Georgia Sierra Club, Greenlaw, and many others: Georgia PSC required Georgia Power to buy twice as much solar power. About a year later, Mary Landers, Savannahnow, 18 November 2014, Georgia is fastest growing solar market,

Last year the Georgia Public Service Commission approved a motion for Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility, to add 525 MW of solar power generation to its portfolio by 2016.

“That pushed out the growth of solar, especially projecting forward,” Continue reading

Simon Solar Farm ribbon cutting in Social Circle, Georgia

A ribbon cutting for 30+ MW of solar power in Social Circle, Georgia, with no media coverage, other than a Georgia Power docket update buried at GA PSC. Claudia Musleve Collier says she made this first quote from email to her, and wants it shared.

Bryan Casey, with Greenavations Power sent me these photos of the recent [13 May 2014] ribbon cutting of their 38 MW solar project in middle Georgia[, Simon Solar in Social Circle]. PSC “Bubba” McDonald was present to flip the switch!

Continue reading

Burnt Church Road: 2 megaWatts solar in Lanier County

The answer is: Burnt Church Road is the location of the 2 MW Lakeland Solar Farm, conveniently next to what appears to be a Georgia Power substation. The landowner appears from the Lanier County tax assessor maps to be Patten Seed Company. Compare this map to the big image in the previous post and they clearly show the same location. Apparently nobody has satellite images of Lanier County new enough yet to show the solar panels. Continue reading

2 megaWatts solar in Lanier County

Somebody told me a few weeks ago there’s a big solar farm near Lakeland. He was not very specific about where, but it’s big: two megawatts, organized by a company out of Chicago. Can anybody point me to where it is so I can go take pictures?

Evergreen Solar Services says,

2.0 MW Lakeland, GA
Completed in 2014, 2 — 1.0 MW Georgia Power ASI projects. Fixed tilt PV with central inverters, medium voltage interconnected.

You can see by this Evergreen Solar Services picture that Continue reading

All new U.S. energy was solar in October 2013

While ten nukes were shut down or cancelled in 2013, solar power continues its compound-interest-curve ever-faster deployment. Zero (0) new nukes were built in 2013 and in October all new U.S. utility-scale power was solar. Unfortunately, the biggest of those was Southern Company’s Campo Verde, which powers California, not Georgia or the southeast, but that is changing now.

Todd Woody wrote for The Atlantic 26 November 2013, Solar Energy Was America’s Sole New Power Source in October: Get ready for a photovoltaic building boom.

In October, power plants generating 530 megawatts of electricity came online in the United States. And every single electron put on the grid came from the sun, according to a report released today.

That’s apparently not even counting rooftop solar.

The report is Solar the sole capacity completed in October, at 530 MW, by Althena Enguerra for SNL 25 November 2013. Continue reading

Mississippi PSC required spending docs for Kemper Coal: what about Plant Vogtle?

Maybe Georgia PSC could do about Georgia Power’s nuclear Plant Vogtle what Mississippi PSC did about Mississippi Power’s Kemper Coal: hold their parent Southern Company accountable for cost overruns. And for pipelines!

Sam R. Hall blogged for Daily Ledes 1 November 2013, Sources: U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to visit Kemper coal plant,

The PSC voted unanimously to require Mississippi Power to provide additional documents justifying their spending on the Kemper plant. The hearing is set for May 2014, when the plant was originally supposed to go online.

“If the PSC rejects some of the spending as imprudent, it could add to the $1 billion in costs that shareholders have already agreed to absorb,” the Associated Press reported last month.

Meanwhile, GA PSC Continue reading

Southern Company missed earnings: weather and Kemper Coal and nuclear Plant Vogtle

SO CEO Tom Fanning continued to blame slow sales and earnings on mild weather (air conditioners running less), but the big boondoggle going bad is Kemper Coal, which has slipped six months from May 2014 to Q4 2014, and even the Wall Street Journal calls it “possibly the most expensive fossil-fuel power plant ever built in the U.S”. How bad will SO’s stock tank when SO’s even more expensive nuclear Plant Vogtle slips even more? Dividends can’t prop up SO’s share price forever, not when PSCs are revolting against the rate hikes and guaranteed profit hikes that prop up those dividends. When will Southern Company and Georgia Power get out front and lead in solar and wind power? Before or after the public, state public service commissions, and investors make them do it?

Justin Loiseau wrote for DailyFinance 4 November 2013, Southern Company Earnings: A $5 Billion Blunder? Continue reading

Video of citizens in Athens opposing Georgia Power solar tax

Another city, more citizens opposed to Georgia Power’s solar tax, and to Georgia Power’s rate hikes for fossil fuels and nukes.

Seth Gunning of Georgia Sierra Clug Hyacinth Manacap Empinado wrote for Athens Patch today, “No” To Rate Hike for Georgia Power, Say Residents at Athens Meeting: People urged Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols to vote against the Georgia Power rate hike request.,

Tim Echols GA PSC and Seth Gunning GA Sierra Club Echols says that part of the money will be used to clean up older coal plants and convert some plants to burn cleaner, natural gas.

If approved, Continue reading

No solar tax –citizens in Gainesville GA

Solar advocate PSC Commissioner Bubba McDonald joined Tim Echols for this one. Citizens said no to Georgia Power’s proposed solar tax, just like in Savannah and Columbus.

Sarah Mueller wrote yesterday for Gainesville Times, Public gives thumbs-down to Georgia Power rate hike,

The Georgia Power Co. rate hike proposal and suggested fees on solar energy installation didn’t get a lot of support from residents who attended a town meeting in Gainesville on Tuesday night.

The Georgia Public Service Commission is reviewing a $482 million three-year rate increase request from the energy company that would add about $7.84 to the average ratepayer’s monthly bill. The Georgia Sierra Club and Georgia Watch has sponsored town meetings around the state this month to let commissioners hear public input on the request. Commissioners Tim Echols and Lauren “Bubba” McDonald participated in the meeting at the Brenau Downtown Center.

Pursuing solar energy as state policy was also a hot topic at the meeting, which was lightly attended. About 10 people spoke, criticizing the proposed hike, the company’s proposed guaranteed profit increase to 11.5 percent and Continue reading