Tag Archives: GA PSC

VDT links Plant Vogtle nuke cost overruns to Kemper Coal

Even the VDT has caught on to cost overruns for Kemper Coal and the
new nukes at Plant Vogtle.

VDT posted an AP article 29 July 2013,

Miss. deal may figure into Georgia nuclear plant,
and
Charlotte Observer posted it the day before, including

Ray Henry
as the author,



In Mississippi, the Southern Co. utility took financial losses when
the cost of building a new power plant went over budget. In Georgia,
another of the company’s projects is going over budget, but it has
not yet taken a financial hit.

Southern Company subsidiary Mississippi Power promised utility
regulators that it would charge its customers only for $2.4 billion
in costs for building a coal-fired power plant in Kemper Country.
Those customers will also have to pay off another $1 billion in
bonds for the project, though the utility cannot make a profit off
that borrowed money.

The utility’s deal in Mississippi has become a point of debate as
Georgia regulators consider who should pay for the increased cost of
building two more nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle (VOH’-gohl),
southeast of Augusta. Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols said he
wants Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power to consider a
Mississippi-style deal here, and Georgia regulators are carefully
tracking financial developments in Mississippi.



Echols said he was interested in the idea of a project spending cap.

“I’m sure when they made that deal they didn’t think they were going
to over the cap, but they did,” Echols said.

Oh, come now,

they went 26 times over budget last time.
Why would anyone believe Continue reading →

Southern Company backed off on cost overrun request


Fitch reaffirmed SO’s and Georgia Power’s (and Mississippi Power’s) ratings today
after Southern Company backed off a week ago from

risking losing the larger cost overrun request to GA PSC.
Beware: SO will be back, when maybe fewer people are looking.
Or maybe

that tiger team
will issue its summer report and the titanic Southern Company ship
will finally change course towards distributed solar and wind power.

Jonathan Shapiro wrote for AP 31 July 2013,

AP: Georgia Power To Waive Request for Extra Vogtle Costs



[Southern Company]
CEO Thomas Fanning told analysts Wednesday that the Atlanta-based
company reached a preliminary deal with Georgia officials.

Under the plan, the company would only seek right now to collect the
$209 million that it spent building the two new reactors at Plant
Vogtle from July to December.

The company would waive Continue reading →

The Korean nuclear mafia: power companies, vendors, and testers


Document-forging Doosan was just the tip of the Korean nuclear corruption iceberg.

It’s different stateside, right?

San Onofre 2 and 3
Oh, wait:

U.S. NRC is refusing to supply Congress with safety documents
related to the closing of San Onofre.
But Plant Vogtle is much safer, right?
Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning told us so.
Of course, he also told us Kemper Coal would come in on budget, and now

SO is writing off $611 million after taxes.
But
that bad concrete pour, the misplaced reactor vessel, the leaking tritium;
those are all flukes, right?
Meanwhile, solar panels don’t leak tritium, and if you misplace one,
you only lose money, not risk lives.

By Choe Sang-Hun in NY Times yesterday,

Scandal in South Korea Over Nuclear Revelations,


Korean nuclear reactor
Weeks of revelations about the close ties between South Korea’s
nuclear power companies, their suppliers and testing companies have
led the prime minister to liken the industry to a mafia.

The scandal started after an anonymous tip in April prompted an
official investigation. Prosecutors have indicted some officials at
a testing company on charges of faking safety tests on parts for the
plants. Some officials at the state-financed company that designs
nuclear power plants were also indicted on charges of taking bribes
from testing company officials in return for accepting those
substandard parts.

Worse yet, Continue reading →

Nuclear an economic boon despite high costs –Tim Echols

Some of the “stuff” that happened before and after
GA PSC Tim Echols cheered nuclear Friday.

GA Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols wrote in the Athens Banner-Herald Friday

Echols: Nuclear power can be economic boon to Southeast,



Just when we thought nuclear power might be on a comeback, well,
stuff happened. Only time will tell if Georgia and South Carolina
can “jump-start” a nuclear renaissance. Let’s hope we
can, because low-cost base-load energy — the amount of
electricity available 24 hours a day — is a key to economic
growth.

Stuff like this happened:

Southern Company missed earnings on Kemper Coal but Plant Vogtle is dominant

The dominant financial consideration
is “what’s going to happen with Georgia”,
meaning with nuclear Plant Vogtle,


said SO CEO Tom Fanning, referring to

the GA PSC CWIP monitoring hearings currently in progress.
Meanwhile, that
$160 million estimate 2 July 2013 of more Kemper Coal cost overruns
by 30 July turned into
$278 million after taxes (AP).

This is on top of

$333 million after taxes in May.
SO earnings fell 52% (WSJ), missing projections, and SO stock dropped 2% yesterday.


Remember GA PSC Tim Echols

already suggested a Plant Vogtle cost overrun cap
similar to the one Mississippi PSC applied to Kemper Coal that caused
SO to have to eat all those costs.
If that happens, SO’s got financial problems.

Has SO seen the solar light yet, as in reliable, dependable, and deployable
on time and on budget?
Nope.
Solar was tacked onto the end of

Tom Fanning’s summary of interesting stuff
in the 31 July 2013 earnings call: Continue reading →

German wind overpowering?

The biggest wind problem in Germany is it produces too much power?
Fortunately there are two well-known simple solutions to
this problem raised by GA Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols in
a comment yesterday.
I do want to thank him for engaging in dialog with the public.

Tim Echols

wrote:


eeX DE wind 2013-07-20
We need nuclear, coal and gas as our baseload power. Germany is
doing the opposite and they are in trouble. Their people pay triple
what we pay for power, and when the wind is blowing at night or on
the weekend, the Germans have to pay Poland to take their excess
power. All of that primarily because the German people hate nuclear
power. In Georgia, we are leading the nation, and I am fine with
that. I just want to make sure our ratepayers are protected and not
paying for the learning curve of new nuclear.

As FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghof has been pointing out for years,

baseload is the problem.
The baseload ideology stands in the way of

the distributed solar power the vast majority of the American people want, and in the way of wind power.

Regarding German power costs to customers, Germany is far north of here,
with far less sun, and Germany has depended heavily on Feed-In Tariffs,
which may or may not be what we need in Georgia.
Meanwhile, what’s been hiking power rates in Georgia is not solar or wind
power, it’s

nuclear and natural gas.
And not for Feed-In Tariffs, either, which are only charged on actual
energy production.
The Georgia legislature approved

Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) for nuclear,
and GA PSC has raised rates to pay for natural
gas plant construction, which amounts to the same thing.
If we want to save ratepayers money,
we should get on with solar and wind power.

Now to the problem with two well-known solutions: Continue reading →

GA PSC member ties Plant Vogtle nuke cost overruns to Kemper Coal in Mississippi

If Georgia Power stonewalls on cost overruns, will it lose
at least one Commissioner this time?


Long-time nuclear supporter Tim Echols suggested at

the hearings this morning
that cost overruns at nuclear Plant Vogtle should be capped like Southern Company
was forced to do for Kemper Coal by the Mississippi PSC.
Standard & Poor’s already

downgraded SO because of Kemper Coal
and two analysts have

downgraded SO for sticking to coal and nukes instead of doing more solar and wind.
If SO’s majority part Georgia Power loses the GA PSC, it could be curtains
for Plant Vogtle’s new nukes.

Ray Henry wrote for AP this morning,

Southern Co. challenged on nuclear plant costs,

Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power has asked to raise the budget
for its share of massive project by $737 million to roughly $6.85
billion.

Public Service Commission Tim Echols asked whether the firm has
considered offering a deal like one it reached in Mississippi over a
separate plant that also proved expensive to build. The company has
absorbed $540 million in losses in Mississippi and could face more.

Remember, Tim Echols has for two years now been Continue reading →

GA PSC hearings on Plant Vogtle CWIP monitoring

Will GA PSC yet again approve passing cost overruns for the new nukes
at Plant Vogtle on to Georgia Power customers?
Hearings started today about that.
You can listen, and you can testify, today or in August or September,
or in writing.


GA PSC PR 15 July 2013,


Contact: Bil Edge
Phone 404-656-2316
www.psc.state.ga.us 		Georgia Public Service Commission


 		244 Washington St S.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
Phone: 404-656-4501
Toll free:1- 800-282-5813
Fax: 404-656-2341
For Immediate Release MEDIA ADVISORY 7-13

PSC to Begin Hearings on Georgia Power Company Eighth Semi-Annual Nuclear
Construction Project Monitoring

Atlanta, July 15, 2013 – The Georgia Public Service Commission (Commission) will begin its first set of hearings on July 18, 2013 at 10 a.m. on the Georgia Power Company Eighth Semi-Annual Nuclear Construction Projection Monitoring,

Docket 29849. The hearing will take place in Room 110 at the Commission offices at 244 Washington Street, S.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30334.The hearing will continue, if necessary, at 10 a.m. on Friday July 19, 2013. Additional hearings are scheduled for August 13-14, 2013 and September 12, 2013.

The Commission will begin by receiving the testimony of any public witnesses pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 46-2-59(g).
Immediately following public witnesses, the Commission will hear
applications to intervene and any objections thereto, and any motions concerning the utilities pre-filed testimony and other appropriate motions.
Following these preliminary matters, the
Commission will conduct hearings on the direct case of Georgia Power.

The schedule in this docket is as follows: Continue reading →

Solar power to Peru’s poorest

While we’ve been fighting over solar for 1% of Georgia Power’s production
(we won, yay!), Peru is busily providing solar power for almost all of its
poorest citizens.

Don Lieber wrote for PlanetSave 15 July 2013,

Peru To Power 2 Million Of Its Poorest — By Solar Energy

The first phase of the program, called “The National
Photovoltaic Household Electrification Program” was initiated
on Monday (July 8) in the Contumaza province, where 1,601 solar
panels were installed. These installations will power 126
impoverished communities in the districts of Cupisnique, San Benito,
Tantarica, Chilete, Yonan, San Luis, and Contai.



As MEM says,

PR 066-11 14 February 2011,

The availability of solar power makes its use attractive throughout the whole country.

MEM remarked about a 20 MW solar plant in Moquegua,

PR 197-11 11 May 2011,

Project will produce clean energy and generate local employment Continue reading →

More solar by Georgia Power –GA PSC

It’s a win for jobs and clean air and plenty of water in Georgia!
Doubled requirements on solar power, and a dozen coal plants shut down.


2, 4, 6, 8, solar power can’t wait!

The

astroturf resistance fizzled, while the pro-solar grassroots
coalition won.
(Pictures of the two demonstrations by Ted Terry.)

525 megawatts more solar power required, on top of

last year’s 210 megawatts, for more than 735 MW total.
That’s still

trailing New Jersey’s already-installed 1,000 MW,
but it’s a big step forward.

The vote was either 4 to 1 (
Ray Henry of AP)
or 3 to 2 (Georgia Sierra Club tweeting from the Commission chamber).
As

Ray Henry tweeted:

“All opposed, say aye.” Wait, what? #gapsc



I’m guessing at least one nay vote was Stan Wise, judging by these
@gasierraclub tweets: Continue reading →