{"id":4184,"date":"2013-06-20T18:40:03","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T22:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=4184"},"modified":"2013-06-20T18:49:32","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T22:49:32","slug":"georgia-powers-plant-arkwright-site-still-unused-11-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/georgia-powers-plant-arkwright-site-still-unused-11-years-later.html","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Power’s Plant Arkwright site still unused 11 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nWhat’s happened to Georgia Power’s close-in-2002 Coal Plant Arkwright\r\nthat\r\n\r\nPutnam County Manager Paul Van Houte<\/a> used as a bad example?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"Job<\/a>\r\nAccording to\r\n\r\nGeorgia Power’s own online history<\/a>:\r\n

\r\nIn 2002, the company retired 11 generating units at three sites including\r\nall of the units at Plant Atkinson and Plant Arkwright and two units at\r\nPlant Mitchell.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSouthern Company has online a\r\n\r\npress release from 15 May 2002<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nFor more than 50 years, generating units at Plant Arkwright in\r\nMacon, Plant Atkinson in Smyrna and Plant Mitchell in Albany have\r\nbeen producing electricity reliably for Georgia Power customers.\r\nNow, for economic reasons, 11 of those units — totaling 415\r\nmegawatts (mw) of capacity — are being proposed for retirement\r\nat the end of this year.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nUnits proposed for retirement include: Plant Arkwright units 1\r\nthrough 4, which are each 40 mw coal-fueled units, plus two 15-mw\r\nnatural gas combustion turbine (CT) units; Plant Atkinson units 2\r\nthrough 4, which are each 60 mw coal units; and units 1 and 2 at\r\nPlant Mitchell, which are 22.5 mw coal units. All of the units, with\r\nthe exception of the combustion turbines at Arkwright, began\r\ncommercial operation in the 1940s.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“This proposal is based on thorough economic analyses,”\r\nsaid David Ratcliffe, president and CEO of Georgia Power.\r\n“Since 1995, we have been required by the Georgia Public\r\nService Commission to conduct a unit retirement analysis as part of\r\nthe Integrated Resource Plan. When we did this analysis for our 2005\r\nplan, the results indicated that it is more economical to retire\r\nthese 11 units than to continue to operate them.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nGeorgia Power will include the plant retirement proposal as part of\r\nan amended Integrated Resource Plan that will be filed with the PSC\r\nin June. That plan will also include an adjusted demand forecast and\r\na proposal to certify new generation sources to meet the state’s\r\nelectricity needs in 2005….\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nPlant Arkwright will be dismantled following retirement. Plant\r\nAtkinson will remain in place because it is on the same site as\r\nPlant McDonough. Plant Mitchell still will operate a 125 mw steam\r\nunit plus three combustion turbine units. The 220-acre Plant\r\nArkwright site on the Ocmulgee River north of Macon will be\r\nevaluated for future use.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nIn this\r\n\r\npicture posted by Scott Mosher 12 September 2007<\/a>,\r\nPlant Arkwright doesn’t look dismantled.\r\nMaybe that picture was taken earlier, because the abstract of\r\nElectric Power Research Institute’s 4 November 2004\r\n\r\nDecommissioning Handbook for Coal-Fired Power Plants<\/a>\r\nsays\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

\r\nAt Arkwright, the plant was removed completely and the site no\r\nlonger used for generating electricity.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nD.H. Griffin Companies\r\n\r\ntakes credit for demolishing Plant Arkwright<\/a>, but doesn’t say when.\r\nThe site, however, appears to still be\r\nfenced off, vacant, and\r\nnot reused for anything, going by\r\n\r\nGoogle Street View<\/a>:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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