{"id":435,"date":"2012-10-08T11:01:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T15:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/what-georgia-power-is-afraid-of-gasu-and-dr-smith-and-you.html"},"modified":"2012-10-08T11:01:30","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T15:01:30","slug":"what-georgia-power-is-afraid-of-gasu-and-dr-smith-and-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/what-georgia-power-is-afraid-of-gasu-and-dr-smith-and-you.html","title":{"rendered":"What Georgia Power is afraid of: GaSU and Dr. Smith; and you"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nSo what is Georgia Power afraid of
\n
\nthat made their CEO Paul Bowers double down on old-style baseload?<\/a>
\nCompetition, that’s what!
\nWhat could be more scary in the power-monopoly state of the
\n
\n1973 Territorial Electric Service Act?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n\"GaSU<\/a>
\nOn one side, Georgia Power faces
\n
\nGaSU and its 80 or 90 MW solar plant proposal.<\/a>
\nWalter C. Jones wrote for OnlineAthens 24 September 2012,
\n
\nProposed solar company could stir up Georgia’s utility structure<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nA proposal from a start-up business promises to lower electricity
\nrates by rebating profits to customers if given a chance to compete
\nas Georgia Power Co.’s \u201cmirror image.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n\"GaSU<\/a>
\nTo proceed with its long-range plan of developing 2 gigawatts of
\nsolar power, the start-up, Georgia Solar Utilities Inc., wants to
\nstart by building an 80-megawatt \u201csolar farm\u201d near
\nMilledgeville as soon as it gets a green light from the Georgia
\nPublic Service Commission. GaSU filed its request last week, and as
\nof Monday, it’s still too fresh for public evaluation.\n<\/p>\n

\nSo radical is the proposal that spokespersons for Georgia Power and
\nthe Georgia Solar Energy Association said they still were evaluating
\nit and could not comment.\n<\/p>\n

\nGroups that normally advocate for customers also are staying quiet.\n<\/p>\n

\nGaSU executives recognize such a big change won’t come easily.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n\"Robert<\/a>
\n\u201cThere are obstacles. There’s no question there are obstacles,
\nbut you have to look at the rewards,\u201d GaSU President Robert E.
\nGreen said at a Capitol news conference. \u201cWe don’t know what
\nit’s going to take, but we are prepared to go through legislative
\naction if necessary.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nOne reaction to GaSU’s PSC request was foretold in the same article:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nCommissioner Chuck Eaton issued a news release saying he had been
\nworking with Georgia Power on a proposal for expanded solar that
\nmeets his requirement of not boosting customers’ rates. The giant
\nutility is expected to release details soon.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAnd two days later,
\n
\nGeorgia Power announced a PSC proposal to swap its former 210 MW of biomass
\nfor the same amount of solar power.<\/a>
\n
\n\"Solar<\/a>
\nWhich is a drop in the bucket, considering tiny New Jersey already installed
\n277 MW of solar in the first half of 2012.
\nAnd remember this feature of Georgia Power’s proposal:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nGeorgia Power’s plan is to buy no more than 20 megawatts from any
\none supplier and to purchase 10 megawatts of so-called distributed
\npower in new contracts each of the next three years from homeowners
\nor property owners looking to make a little money from their roof
\nspace.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nHm, 20 MW is a lot less than GaSU’s 80 or 90 MW proposal.
\nConvenient, huh?
\nAnd if that wasn’t enough, a week later
\n
\nGeorgia Power’s Bowers doubled down on old-style baseload
\nfor the next fifty years.<\/a>
\nThe timing of these two Georgia Power announcements could be coincidence,
\nI suppose.
\nBut I think more likely Georgia Power is running scared of GaSU.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n\"Dr.<\/a>
\nMeanwhile, remember Dr. Sidney Smith is chipping away at the other
\nend of the price<\/strike> size spectrum with
\nLower Rates for Customers LLC,
\nwhich is
\n
\ninstalling solar panels in customers parking lots, selling them
\nthe power, and daring Georgia Power to sue,<\/a>
\nwhile
\n
\ndeploying solar meters to enable a commodity market in solar power.<\/a>
\nA solar market through which I could sell the excess of my
\n
\n15 KW of rooftop solar<\/a>,
\ngetting far more for it than the 4.5 cents Colquitt EMC currently pays me.
\nColquitt EMC could take a percentage for transport and get bragging rights,
\nso everybody would profit.
\nThis is the same thing on rooftop scale that GaSU proposed for its 90MW
\nsolar farm, as Walter C. Jones pointed out:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nGaSU could build its solar farm without action by the state
\nlegislature or the PSC, and existing federal law would require
\nGeorgia Power to buy its electricity. But it would only pay GaSU an
\namount equal to what it could buy electricity from its cheapest
\nwholesale supplier.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n\"John<\/a>
\nThe start-up wants instead to sell its electricity directly to
\nretail customers who would be billed by Georgia Power or the other
\nexisting utilities, similar to how natural gas is marketed here.
\nGaSU would pay the utilities for the use of their wires in the
\nelectric grid and any profits would be shared with customers like a
\ncooperative.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nYou could profit too: such a market would enable private financing for
\nsolar such as you can already get in Tennessee, California, Oregon, New Jersey,
\n
\n\"Monopoly<\/a>
\nor many other states.
\nBut not yet in Georgia, because of the
\n
\n1973 Electric Territorial Act.<\/a>
\nThat’s right, Georgia Power is scared of you, because if you can generate
\nyour own power, you might buy less from them, and they might not be able to
\nmilk big baseload plants like they do now.
\nNevermind that if they got out in front on this change that’s going
\nto happen sooner or later they could actually profit more than now
\n(more on that later).
\nGeorgia Power is afraid of you, and Dr. Smith, and GaSU.\n<\/p>\n

\nGaSU has
\nan online petition<\/a> to the state of Georgia,
\nposted by Shane Owl-Greason.
\nFor more information,
\n
\nGaSU’s facebook page<\/a>
\nhas occasional updates, and is at least more informative than their
\nwebsite<\/a>,
\nwhich doesn’t even list Robert E. Green or Shane Owl-Greason
\nor anybody else as executives or otherwise associated with the company.
\nI wonder if a company that wants to change the bedrock Georgia monopoly law, the
\n
\n1973 Electric Territorial Act,<\/a>
\nmight not get more public support if they
\nwere a bit more transparent, instead of more opaque than Georgia Power.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n\"Sun<\/a>
\nEventually, GaSU and Dr. Smith, or others like them, will win.
\nGeorgia Power and its parent the Southern Company (SO) could
\ngo ahead and lead now, or they can keep stonewalling and dragging
\nGeorgia still farther behind New Jersey and most other states.
\nWe have an opportunity right now in this election to replace
\ntwo GA PSC members and multiple legislators,
\nor at least to give them such a fright as recently caused
\n
\nSnapping Shoals EMC<\/a> to ditch coal.
\nSnapping Shoals probably remembered
\n
\nCobb EMC waiting until a majority of its board was replaced<\/a>
\nbefore it switched from coal to solar for new plants.
\nHow long will Georgia Power and SO wait?\n<\/p>\n

\nThe
\n
\nsolar train is leaving the station<\/a>,
\nand it’s time for Georgia to get on board.
\nIf you’re tired of SO playing us all for rubes and
\nshovelling money into that nuclear pit on the Savannah River
\ninstead of getting on with solar and wind,
\n
\nyou can get out and early vote<\/a> this month or on election day November 6th<\/sup><\/small>.\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So what is Georgia Power afraid of that made their CEO Paul Bowers double down on old-style baseload? Competition, that’s what! What could be more scary in the power-monopoly state of the 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act? On one side, Georgia Power faces GaSU and its 80 or 90 MW solar plant proposal. Walter C. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,47,141,216,1127,142,14,49,264,265,16,70,17,8,18,2,20,312,104,21,22,32,23,24,3,36],"tags":[8736,8738,8719,8745,8753,8818,1153,1606,8746,8704,8721,1608,8754,8755,8706,8728,8707,102,8701,8708,101,8699,8702,8710,8760,12,7,647,8737,8711,8712,8715,8713,1605,1607,8714,108,8700,6,8716],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-climate-change","category-co2","category-coal","category-cobb-emc","category-cwip","category-economy","category-elections","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-environment","category-ethics","category-ga-psc","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-law","category-lower-rates-for-customers-llc","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-politics","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","category-transparency","category-wind","tag-activism","tag-biomass","tag-climate-change","tag-co2","tag-coal","tag-cobb-emc","tag-corruption","tag-cost-overruns","tag-cwip","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-electric-territorial-act","tag-energy-conservation","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-environment","tag-ethics","tag-ga-psc","tag-gasu","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-georgia-solar-utilities","tag-government","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lower-rates-for-customers-llc","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-monopoly","tag-nuclear","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-pollution","tag-renewable-energy","tag-rooftop-solar","tag-snapping-shoals-emc","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-wind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}