Georgia Power
{{#badges: CoalSwarm | nuclear spin}}Georgia Power describes itself as "an investor-owned, tax-paying utility that serves 2.25 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties." It is the largest of four electric utilities comprising Southern Company.[1]
In 2006 the Savannah Electric & Power Company, a separate subsidiary of Southern Company, was merged into Georgia Power.[2]
Contents
Transmission system
Georgia Power utilizes transmission lines carrying 115,00 volts, 230,000 volts and 500,000 volts. Georgia Power has interconnections with the Tennessee Valley Authority to the north, Alabama Power Company to the west, South Carolina Gas and Electric and Duke Energy to the east, and Florida Power and Light to the south.[3]
Georgia Power and coal
Georgia Power operates Scherer Steam Generating Station. In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill.[4] The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.[5]
In March 2009 the Georgia Public Service Commission approved Georgia Power's request to convert its Plant Mitchell Unit 3 from coal-fired to biomass. Located near Albany, Georgia, the facility will reportedly be able to produce 96 megawatts of power once the conversion is completed in June 2012, making it one of the largest biomass power plants in the United States. Georgia Power says it will draw on wood fuel from suppliers within a 100-mile radius of the power plant, and plans to begin the conversion by spring 2011.[6]
Georgia Power and nuclear
Georgia Power generates energy from two nuclear plants in Georgia -- Plant Hatch and Plant Vogtle [7] -- comprising 19 percent of the company's generating sources in 2008. [8]
In a bid to add two reactors to the Vogtle plant, Georgia Power lobbied the state legislature for the ability "to charge electric customers for construction costs before the nuclear plants start producing electricity," referred to as construction work in progress (CWIP). The legislature passed CWIP, as Senate Bill 31, but environmentalists filed a legal challenge to the measure in September 2009. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy argued that in giving "Georgia Power permission to charge electric customers for construction costs before the nuclear plants start producing electricity, that the law amounted to a sort of tax that gives the utility something for nothing." The Alliance lawsuit states: "The adoption of the nuclear tariff by the Georgia General Assembly creates an unconstitutional gratuity in favor of Georgia Power and its stockholders, for, among other reasons, paying such stockholders of Georgia Power a return on equity in excess of $1 billion before Units 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle are even put into service, i.e., for services which have not been rendered." [9]
Fossil fuel power plants
In 2008 coal accounted for 74% of Georgia Power's generation source.[10] Georgia Power owns the following plants:[11]
| Plant | Nearest City | Years Built | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bowen Steam Plant | Cartersville, Georgia | 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975 | 3,499 MW |
| Harllee Branch Generating Plant | Milledgeville, Georgia | 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969 | 1,746 MW |
| William P. Hammond Steam-Electric Generating Plant | Coosa, Georgia | 1954, 1955, 1970 | 953 MW |
| Kraft Plant | Savannah, Georgia | 1958, 1961, 1965 | 208 MW |
| John J. McDonough Steam Generating Plant | Smyrna, Georgia | 1963, 1964 | 598 MW |
| McIntosh Steam Plant | Rincon, Georgia | 1979 | 178 MW |
| Mitchell Steam Generating Plant (Georgia) | Albany, Georgia | 1964 | 163 MW |
| Scherer Steam Generating Station | Juliette, Georgia | 1982, 1984, 1987, 1989 | 3,564 MW |
| Wansley Plant | Franklin, Georgia | 1976, 1978 | 1,904 MW |
| Yates Steam Generating Plant | Newnan, Georgia | 1950, 1952, 1957, 1958, 1974 | 1,487 MW |
Georgia Power plans to convert the 1960s coal-fired Plant McDonough into a bigger power plant that uses natural gas. The conversion will replace 540 megawatts of coal-fired generation with more than 2,500 megawatts of natural gas generation.[12]
Contact information
Georgia Power Company
241 Ralph McGill Boulevard NE
Atlanta, GA 30308
Phone: 404-506-6526
Website: http://www.georgiapower.com
Articles and resources
Related SourceWatch articles
References
- ↑ Georgia Power: About Us", Georgia Power website, accessed July 2009.
- ↑ "Bright Ideas" Georgia Power’s Outdoor Lighting newsletter, Summer 2006.
- ↑ Georgia Power: About Us", Georgia Power website, accessed July 2009.
- ↑ Sue Sturgis, "Coal's ticking timebomb: Could disaster strike a coal ash dump near you?," Institute for Southern Studies, January 4, 2009.
- ↑ "TRI Explorer", U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed January 2009.
- ↑ "Georgia Power Wins Approval to Switch Coal Plant to Biomass Power" U.S. Department of Energy Website, March 25, 2009
- ↑ "Plants," Georgia Power website, accessed September 2009.
- ↑ "Facts & figures," Georgia Power website, accessed September 2009.
- ↑ Walter C. Jones, "Nuclear opponents attacking from many angles: Lawsuit may halt reactor construction," Morris News Service / Athens Banner-Herald (Georgia), September 5, 2009.
- ↑ "Facts and Figures" Georgia Power Website, September 2009
- ↑ "Generating Plants", Georgia Power website, accessed August 2009.
- ↑ "Improving Air Quality" Georgia Power Website, September 2009
External resources
External articles
Wikipedia also has an article on Georgia Power. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.
