by Dave Williams | Jul 21, 2022 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia energy regulators voted Thursday to require Georgia Power to take a more aggressive approach toward developing renewable energy on several fronts.
However, the state Public Service Commission also rejected at least for now a proposed expansion of Georgia Power’s rooftop solar program. The unanimous vote also will allow the Atlanta-based utility to continue operating two coal-burning units at Plant Bowen near Cartersville.
At issue was the latest update of Georgia Power’s Integrated Resource Plan, which the utility submits to the commission every three years outlining the mix of energy sources it plans to rely on for power generation during the next 20 years.
The commission vote approved an agreement Georgia Power reached last month with the commission’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff, modified by a series of amendments commissioners brought during Thursday’s meeting.
Two of the amendments will require Georgia Power to develop additional renewable energy from battery storage and biomass.
The original version of the plan the company submitted in January called for adding 1,000 megawatts through battery storage. However, last month’s agreement did away with the proposal after Georgia Power officials expressed concerns over whether the project’s benefits would justify the cost.
Thursday’s amendment, proposed by Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, settled on an additional 500 megawatts from battery storage.
Commissioner Jason Shaw proposed an amendment requiring Georgia Power to issue a request for proposals no later than the first quarter of next year to develop up to 140 megawatts of renewable electricity from biomass. Shaw, who represents South Georgia on the commission, said the move would benefit the region’s timber industry.
Commissioners considered but ultimately rejected a second motion by McDonald that would have required Georgia Power to pay for a demonstration project testing “tall wind” technology rather than pass on the cost to customers.
“I applaud looking at new technology if the company wants to take it out of retained earnings,” McDonald said. “I don’t want to be a part of putting any more mandates on the rates.”
However, the commission’s majority voted instead to eliminate the tall wind project from the plan after Commissioner Tim Echols pointed out an earlier wind project the commission approved nine years ago has yet to move forward.
“Those [wind] turbines are still sitting in a warehouse in South Georgia,” he said. “I’m very skeptical about this project as well.”
The commission also amended the plan to move toward developing additional power through “distributed generation” by forming a working group of commission and solar industry representatives to put together the request for proposal.
But commissioners balked at a motion by Echols to significantly expand Georgia Power’s popular rooftop solar program from a current cap of 5,000 customers to 75,000.
“This is still a tiny part of the Georgia Power base,” he said. “Continuing this will promote economic development and allow more customers to be part of this clean-energy economy.”
Instead, officials voted 3-2 to punt the rooftop solar issue until the commission takes up Georgia Power’s next rate case later this year. The utility is proposing to raise customer rates by nearly 12% during the next three years effective Jan. 1.
“In this IRP, we simply do not have the cost information necessary to set just and reasonable rates, terms and conditions for rooftop solar,” said Shaw, who made the motion to delay deciding the issue.
Finally, the commission supported a motion by Commissioner Fitz Johnson to allow the two coal units at Plant Bowen to continue operating for now and reassess the issue when it takes up the next plan in 2025. Last month’s agreement had left a decision on whether to retire the two units to the commission as a policy matter.
Georgia Power noted in a news release that the IRP will move the company toward retiring all its coal-fired generating capacity except the two units at Plant Bowen by 2028.
“To facilitate this strategic fleet transition, the Georgia Public Service Commission also approved more than 2,000 MW (megawatts) of capacity from natural gas power purchasing agreements in the coming years,” the release stated.
“We are committed to building the future of energy for our state,” said Chris Womack, Georgia Power’s chairman, president, and CEO. “These investments in our electric grid and energy infrastructure will help ensure that every customer, whether at home or running a business, has the energy they need to thrive.”
The Sierra Club called Thursday’s vote a “step in the right direction” but criticized the IRP for failing to adequately address the climate crisis.
“We need urgency and resolve to stop adding to this problem we have created,” said Scott Presson, lead volunteer for the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club’s Clean Energy Committee. “Our families deserve a livable planet.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Why is the Georgia Public Service Commission against expanding the number of roof top solar systems? The PSC already let GP cut the rate they were paying solar investors from 17 cents per kWh to 3.7 cent per kWh. If you’re thinking about solar in Georgia, forget it and save yourself tens of thousands of dollars.
Wind turbines are still sitting in a warehouse in South Georgia? Sounds like something Augusta-Richmond County would do.
Other than the mountaintops of North Georgia, where else would there be constant wind, to drive the wind turbines ? My wife and I saw them in masses, in Texas and Arizona. In addition, how would the “spent” turbine pieces be recycled ? That is a problem the mid-West still has not figured out. Not sold on the biomass portion either, since it still requires “scrubbers”, and also still produces ash, just like coal. Large paper mills co-generate their power, based upon the daily rate set by Georgia Power. The mill in South Augusta does (Federal Paper Board, then International Paper).
Texas aggressively pursued renewables. Now they are begging people to forgo AC and avoid charging their Teslas.
Renewables are a danger to civilization.
So if you can’t charge your Tesla when you’re at home away from work, how do you get to work the next day? Perhaps one needs to quit his job. But then how does one pay for the Tesla? Hmm, a mystery.