(C) Georgia Recorder
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Critics push for coal ash cleanup as state panel considers Georgia Power 12% rate hike [1]
['Stanley Dunlap', 'More From Author', '- July']
Date: 2022-07-14
State regulators are set to vote next week on Georgia Power’s long-term plan that environmental and clean energy advocates say doesn’t go far enough to expand solar and other renewable energy and falls short of responsibly closing coal-fired power plants.
A Public Service Commission committee meeting on Thursday was the final hearing to consider the state’s largest utility company’s 2022 Integrated Resource Plan that lays out a vision for producing energy and managing infrastructure as Georgia Power transitions from generating electricity by burning coal to cleaner forms energy.
Robert Jackson, a Sierra Club of Georgia attorney, pushed for regulators to revise Georgia Power’s three-year plan to allocate more capacity for solar power, to support electric vehicles infrastructure, and to ensure the cleanup plan for its toxic coal ash ponds abide by environmental regulations.
Georgia Power officials are projecting over the long term it could take $9 billion to close 11 coal fired-plants and to seal coal ash in 29 ponds by 2035, a process that detractors say is dangerous.
“(That) plan to leave coal ash sitting in groundwater, the cap in place plans described in the company’s environmental compliance, are illegal under federal and state law,” Jackson said.
Georgia Power is awaiting word on its permit applications to wind down its aging plants from the state Environmental Protection Division, and has defended its methods for storing coal ash as safe and legal.
Georgia Power Attorney Brandon Marzo said Thursday that the company remains committed to phasing out its remaining coal-fired plants and aging facilities over the next decade, even after a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to set overarching carbon emission regulations at legacy electricity generators.
Among the plans are for units at Plant Wansley in Carroll County and a gas unit at Chatham County’s Plant Boulevard to close by Aug. 31. One of the country’s dirtiest and largest coal-fired power generators, Plant Scherer near Macon is also due to be shut down.
The court ruling “does not alter the company’s analysis in this case or the economic conclusion that several of the company’s coal plants are no longer economically viable,” Marzo said.
The PSC is set to vote Thursday on the Georgia Power plan that sets the course of the next 20 years and beyond. The plan is updated every three years, putting it on the same calendar for the company’s rate case, which includes the utility’s request for a 12% rate hike on its 2.5 million customers over the next three years.
Marzo said Georgia Power is satisfied that the IRP that’s up for vote next week can provide customers with clean, safe and reliable electricity for decades.
But environmental and solar industry groups urged Georgia to continue making strides with solar energy by removing a capped limit on the number of customers and megawatts that can be generated on a monthly basis.
Last year, 40,000 customers in Florida signed up for its solar program, eight times what’s allowed in Georgia.
Georgia Power is awaiting results from a year-long study of its metering program that is now capped at 5,000 customers.
Marzo said the analysis should be completed in September 2023 and will likely bolster Georgia Power’s contention that non-solar customers are absorbing too large a share of costs to subsidize users of the clean energy technology.
Commissioner Tim Echols, who uses solar to power his home, opened the door for a last-minute addition that would ramp up solar rooftop opportunities, while pointing out that Georgia Power has consistently resisted progress in solar since 2013.
Marzo said although plans for the next three years will bring the utility company closer to the long-term target of adding 6,000 megawatts of renewable energy, some groups are unrealistic about the level of demand.
Marzo said that the company’s revised plan for the future further reinforces the transmission system improvements that are necessary to meet the shift in energy production. Georgia Power is pushing to bring online 7.8 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2029 as part of a $12 billion investment.
“Intervenors who’ve requested nearly double the amount of renewables, did not provide sufficient evidence to support their request, nor can they draw a pathway to develop the transmission to get to those higher numbers,” Marzo said.
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[1] Url:
https://georgiarecorder.com/2022/07/14/critics-push-for-coal-ash-cleanup-as-state-panel-considers-georgia-power-12-rate-hike/
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