ATLANTA (AP) — Utility regulators on Tuesday approved a plan for Georgia Power Co. to expand a power plant southwest of Atlanta.

The Georgia Public Service Commission voted 5-0 for the unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. to build three new fossil-fuel burning units at Plant Yates, near Newnan.

The company has declined to say how much it will spend on the plants, which will burn either natural gas or diesel fuel to generate electricity, but commission staff members have said similar recent plants in other states have cost $800 million or more.

The commission greenlighted building the plants in April, when it approved a special plan to add generating capacity because the utility said demand was increasing more rapidly than previous projections, driven in part by a boom in computer data centers locating in Georgia. The company won permission to build the units itself, without seeking outside bids for electrical generation, because its projections show it needs more electricity by the end 2026.

“Simply put, we need to build these units and we need to build them now,” Georgia Power lawyer Steve Hewitson told commissioners Thursday during a committee meeting.

Normally, commissioners approve long-term generating and rate plans for Georgia Power once every three years, but this approval came mid-cycle. Because the regular generating and rate plans will be up for consideration next year, customers will see no change in bills because of Plant Yates until 2026.

Georgia Power customers have seen their bills rise sharply in recent years because of higher natural gas costs, the cost of construction projects, including two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, and other factors. A typical Georgia Power residential customer now pays more than $173 a month, including taxes.

Environmentalists and customer advocates questioned letting Georgia Power build new fossil fuel plants without going through a competitive process. Using those sources would mean Georgia Power emits more climate-altering carbon dioxide than using solar generation, other renewable sources and conservation.

They also argue that it leaves customers more exposed to the risk of rising natural gas costs, which have been a big ingredient in recent bill increases. The units would mostly run on natural gas but would switch to diesel when electrical demand is at peak and more natural gas can’t be purchased or delivered by pipeline.

Curt Thompson, a lawyer representing the Sierra Club and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, argued Thursday that Georgia Power should bear some of the risks of rising natural gas costs. In Georgia, the company has been allowed to pass through the entire costs of fuel for its plants, including the combustion turbines it wants to build at Yates.

“The utility industry in general and Georgia Power, in particular, have become increasingly reliant on gas,” Thompson said. “The Yates CTs would only deepen that gas addiction.”

Opponents had again asked the commission to wait until it could examine bids to provide generation, even though commissioners had approved the Yates plan in April.

“Those resources may well be cheaper, cleaner, and a better fit for Georgia Power customers,” Thompson said.

Georgia Power agreed it wouldn’t charge for cost overruns for the turbines unless they are caused by factors outside the company’s “reasonable control.” It’s supposed to submit reports on construction progress every six months.

The fire, described as small by Georgia Power Co. spokesperson John Kraft, broke out about noon and could have threatened the electrical supply to the heating and cooling system for the control room of one of the complex’s two older nuclear reactors, Vogtle Unit 2.

The fire was put out by plant employees, Georgia Power officials said, and the alert ended just after 2:30 p.m. The cause of the fire hasn’t yet been determined, Kraft said.

Dave Gasperson, a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesperson, said the fire was contained and did not affect any of the plant’s operating systems, and a backup power system remained available for the heating and cooling system. Gasperson said the commission’s onsite inspector monitored the situation and the commission, a federal agency which oversees nuclear power plants, is determining whether additional follow-up inspections are needed.

Officials said the fire caused no injuries and didn’t threaten the safety or health of employees or members of the public. All four of the nuclear reactors onsite continued to produce electricity at full power, Kraft said.

An alert is the second-least serious category of emergency out of four categories designated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an agency that oversees nuclear power plants. That category could reduce a plant’s level of safety but isn’t supposed to affect the public. The plant returned to normal operations after terminating the alert.

Georgia Power said workers are coordinating recovery with federal, state and local officials. Georgia Power owns the plant along with partners Oglethorpe Power Corp., Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton city utilities. It supplies electricity to almost all Georgians, as well as some utilities in Florida and Alabama.

The two older nuclear reactors were completed in 1987 and 1989. If they lose primary electricity from the outside grid, as well as backup electricity from a diesel generator, the reactors can overheat and melt down. A diesel generator was never needed Tuesday, Kraft said.

Vogtle’s two newer nuclear reactors are designed to avoid a meltdown from a power loss. Those reactors were completed this year and are the first new reactors built from scratch in the United States in decades. They cost the owners $31 billion, finishing seven years late and $17 billion over budget. Add in $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid Vogtle owners to walk away from construction, and the total nears $35 billion.

Georgia Power is celebrating Generation Appreciation Month, a time to recognize the more than 1,100 team members who “work tirelessly in power plants across state to keep reliable energy flowing to the grid on hot summer days, cold winter mornings and every hour in between.”

“In life, as well as with Georgia Power’s power generation facilities, there is no one-size-fits-all option,” said Rick Anderson, senior vice president and senior production officer for Georgia Power. “From the existing facilities that have powered Georgia for decades, to newer sources of generation such as renewable energy, cleaner natural gas and battery storage, Georgia Power’s diverse generation mix continues to evolve to meet the needs of a growing Georgia. To keep the energy flowing, we need a workforce that is just as advanced and diverse.”

Based on available opportunities, a career in power generation offers many possibilities for those who join the team, Georgia Power said. Career paths exist in the areas of operations, maintenance, electrical, instrumentation, engineering and more. Last year, the company hired over 80 team members across generation facilities and expects the hiring trend to continue in the coming years. Strong training programs exist in Operations, along with apprenticeships in Mechanical and Electrical, which develop experienced journeymen who work safely to keep energy flowing to the grid, 24/7.

Georgia Power also highlighted the “continuous learning” it offers, including the Rockmart training facility where electrical, mechanical, and instrumentation and control technicians hone their skills each year. In 2023, this facility conducted nearly 3,000 hours of both hands-on and classroom instruction. Subject matter experts from both Southern Company and external entities visited to assist in this training program.

Unit 3 had been offline for more than a week due to a “valve malfunction.”

A spokesperson for the utility said on the evening of July 8, plant operators executed a safe shutdown of the reactor, due to lowering water levels in the steam generators.

The issue was traced to a valve malfunction on one of the three main feedwater pumps, located on the turbine side of the plant. These pumps send water that has been heated from the condenser through a serious of feedwater heaters to be sent back to the steam generators.

The spokesperson said the utility teams investigated the issue and necessary repairs have been completed. Southern Nuclear notified the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and say at no time was the safety of the employees or community at risk.

“We do want customers to know that we maintain a diverse generation mix to help ensure reliable service for customers during very high, and very low, temperatures,” said the Georgia Power spokesperson. “We don’t anticipate any issues meeting demand due to this unit being offline.”  

Vogtle Unit 3, the first newly-constructed nuclear unit in the U.S. in over 30 years, entered commercial operation on July 31, 2023, after years of delays and projected costs of around $35 billion. Unit 4 successfully connected to the grid in March 2024.

Vogtle 3 & 4 are the first nuclear reactors to be built in the U.S. in decades.

President Biden’s administration estimates the U.S. will need to triple its nuclear capacity in order to reach net-zero by 2050.

The control room operator began his career in the 1980s as a laborer, but his ties to Vogtle run even deeper. Quick grew up in Waynesboro, Georgia, the home of what is America’s largest generator of clean energy.

“I’ve watched the development of the farm land that I knew as a child into this incredible nuclear facility,” he said.

Quick stood before hundreds of people Friday at an event to officially mark the completion of Vogtle Units 3 & 4. The latter unit began commercial operation in April.

To many, the challenging and controversial project represents hope against the threat of climate change and a gateway to America’s nuclear ambitions. Vogtle 3 & 4 are the first nuclear reactors to be built in the U.S. in decades. To others, it’s a boondoggle of a project which cost billions more and took years longer than originally projected.

But Friday’s event, which drew Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, elected officials representing Georgia, along with industry and labor, struck a celebratory tone.

It was also a tribute to the more than 35,000 people who helped build Vogtle.

“At peak construction, I understand there were 9,000 workers on site,” marveled Granholm as she addressed the audience. “Years of persistence got us to this moment.”

Tim Hall was one of thousands of skilled workers involved in building Vogtle Units 3 & 4. He is also a 26-year member of the Augusta, Georgia-based plumbers and steamfitters union. Hall said each trade faced challenges over the course of the project, including weather, communication, logistics and the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Hall said these challenges were overcome due to a sense of pride and commitment, along with “knowing that we were working towards something that hasn’t been done in over 35 years.”

For Hall, punching in alongside fellow tradespeople each day reminded him of the journey of his own stepfather, who worked on the construction of Vogtle Units 1 & 2.

“I can remember my mother loading my brother and I up and driving us out here, parking right over where that building is, and watching all the tradespeople come in and out with my stepfather, Hall said.

Toni Ward-Buxton is yet another homegrown story. She grew up in the backyard of Vogtle and passed it every day on the way to school.

Ward-Buxton is currently an Organizational Effectiveness Coordinator at Vogtle 3 & 4 for Southern Nuclear but has previously held positions from Maintenance Supervisor to Nuclear Electrician at the plant.

She helped build Vogtle. Now her son wants to follow in her footsteps.

“Working on the Vogtle project has given me the confidence to keep reaching,” she told the audience.

As much jubilation as there was Friday, lofty goals remain.

The Biden Administration estimates the U.S. will need to triple its nuclear capacity in order to reach net-zero by 2050.

“To all of you, who dreamed and toiled to make this happen, you are both the generals and the foot soldiers on the front line in this battle against the most relentless foe, which is climate change,” stated Granholm.

Recent policy actions aim to scale up the U.S. nuclear industry. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) both carry provisions to benefit nuclear power. Since both items became law, companies across the U.S. have announced 29 new or expanded nuclear facilities, Granholm said.

But lessons learned from Vogtle could result in cheaper and faster nuclear projects. Jigar Shah, who heads up the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), noted on Twitter that Vogtle Unit 4 came in 30% cheaper than Unit 3, showing that progress is possible.

Vogtle Unit 4 came in 30% cheaper than Unit 3. @Bechtel and @WECNuclear worked with @NABTU to train over 30,000 workers with a peak of 9,000 workers at the site to make this happen. Unit 5&6 would come in below $95/MWh delivering 24/7 #cleanfirm power. https://t.co/22nyWuvWZF

— Jigar Shah (@JigarShahDC) May 31, 2024

“This project is a prime example of how first-of-a-kind challenges can become nth-of-a-kind successes,” said Granholm.

“We can do hard things. We can build big things,” said Southern Company Chairman and CEO Chris Womack.

ATLANTA (AP) — The second of two new nuclear reactors in Georgia has entered commercial operation, capping a project that cost billions more and took years longer than originally projected.

Georgia Power Co. and fellow owners announced the milestone Monday for Plant Vogtle’s Unit 4, which joins an earlier new reactor southeast of Augusta in splitting atoms to make carbon-free electricity.

Unit 3 began commercial operation last summer, joining two older reactors that have stood on the site for decades. They’re the first two nuclear reactors built in the United States in decades.

The new Vogtle reactors are currently projected to cost Georgia Power and three other owners $31 billion, according to calculations by The Associated Press. Add in $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid Vogtle owners to walk away from construction, and the total nears $35 billion.

Electric customers in Georgia already have paid billions for what may be the most expensive power plant ever. The reactors were originally projected to cost $14 billion and be completed by 2017.

Utilities and their political supporters on Monday hailed the plant’s completion. Georgia Gov Brian Kemp proclaimed he was “thankful for this historic achievement by Georgia Power and its partners.” Chris Womack, CEO of Atlanta-based Southern Co., which owns Georgia Power, argues Vogtle will make the state’s electrical grid more reliable and resilient and help the utility meet its goal of zeroing out carbon emissions by 2050.

“These new Vogtle units not only will support the economy within our communities now and in the future, they demonstrate our global nuclear leadership,” Womack said in a statement.

Each of the two new reactors can power 500,000 homes and businesses without releasing any carbon.

Even some opponents of Vogtle have said the United States can’t achieve carbon-free electricity without nuclear power. But Georgia Power, like other utilities, plans to build more fossil fuel generation in coming years, saying demand is rising sharply. That demand, driven by computer data centers, is being felt by multiple utilities across the country.

Calculations show Vogtle’s electricity will never be cheaper than other sources the owners could have chosen, even after the federal government reduced borrowing costs by guaranteeing repayment of $12 billion in loans.

“Hopefully, despite being seven years late and billions over budget, the two new units at Plant Vogtle will finally perform well for at least the next 80 years to justify the excessive cost,” said Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch, a consumer group that fought to limit rate increases

In Georgia, almost every electric customer will pay for Vogtle. Georgia Power owns 45.7% of the reactors. Smaller shares are owned by Oglethorpe Power Corp., which provides electricity to member-owned cooperatives, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton. Utilities in Jacksonville, Florida, as well as in the Florida Panhandle and parts of Alabama also have contracted to buy Vogtle’s power.

Regulators in December approved an additional 6% rate increase on Georgia Power’s 2.7 million customers to pay for $7.56 billion in remaining costs at Vogtle, with the company absorbing $2.6 billion in costs. That’s expected to cost the typical residential customer an additional $8.97 a month in May, on top of the $5.42 increase that took effect when Unit 3 began operating.

Even as government officials and some utilities are looking to nuclear power to alleviate climate change, the cost of Vogtle could discourage utilities from pursuing nuclear power. American utilities have heeded Vogtle’s missteps, shelving plans for 24 other reactors proposed between 2007 and 2009. Two half-built reactors in South Carolina were abandoned. But Westinghouse is marketing the reactor design abroad.

China has said it will build more reactors using the design, while Bulgaria, Poland and Ukraine also say they intend to build nuclear power stations using the Westinghouse reactor.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Power Co. announced a deal with regulatory staff to build and buy more electrical generation ahead of schedule on Wednesday, pledging that the deal will reduce rates for existing customers.

“We expect the revenues associated with energy sales to incremental large load customers will put downward pressure on rates for all customers,” Aaron Abramovitz, Georgia Power’s chief financial officer, testified Wednesday before the Georgia Public Service Commission.

But environmentalists and customer advocates questioned a plan that would let the unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. buy power and build new fossil fuel plants without going through a competitive process. Using those sources would mean that Georgia Power emits more climate-altering carbon dioxide than using solar generation, other renewable sources and conservation.

“This is a fossil fuel bonanza that skips the regulatory processes in place to protect billpayers,” Jennifer Whitfield, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. “Not only is expanding dirty, and unpredictably priced fossil fuels on the table, this agreement would allow Georgia Power to bypass important steps to protect its customers from rising energy bills.”

The five-member elected commission is scheduled to vote on the plan on April 16. Commissioners don’t have to accept the settlement agreement between Georgia Power and their own staff, but such agreements are highly influential.

The company pledged that it would credit $615 million a year in revenue toward future rate calculations in 2029 and later, even if all the new customers the company forecasts don’t sign up. Abramovitz testified that, if nothing else changes, that amount of money could cut rates for a typical residential customer by 1.6%, or $2.89 a month.

That would be a welcome relief for Georgia Power customers, who have seen their bills rise sharply in recent years because higher natural gas costs and rate increases associated with construction projects including two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. A typical Georgia Power residential customer now pays an average of about $157 a month, including taxes.

No rates would change as a result of the deal until 2026.

Commissioner Tim Echols, a Republican, suggested that financial guarantee was “like money in the bank against a possible rate increase. But Abramovitz acknowledged under questioning that the utility could still ask for a rate increase, saying “there are other costs associated with serving our customers and the rest of our business.”

The request for more generation capacity is unusual because Georgia regulators usually consider those needs on a three-year cycle, with the next integrated resource plan scheduled to be considered next year. But the company says that many new users, including computer data centers, are seeking power that it needs more generation immediately. Abramovitz said in testimony that 6,200 megawatts of additional demand have signed up in recent years. That’s almost three times the capacity of the two new Vogtle reactors.

The deal outlined Wednesday would let Georgia Power contract for generation from a natural gas plant in Pace, Florida, and from Mississippi Power Co., a Southern Co. corporate sibling. Georgia Power would also be approved to build three new combustion turbines at Plant Yates near Newnan that could burn natural gas or oil. However, the company agreed it wouldn’t seek to charge for cost overruns for the turbines unless the overruns are caused by a natural disaster or other items outside the company’s “reasonable control.

Under the deal, Georgia Power agrees that in 2024 and 2025 it won’t charge customers if it can’t resell surplus electricity from the Florida or Mississippi plants, and won’t collect an additional profit from customers atop what it pays to buy the power.

Georgia Power also agreed that it would seek bids for 500 megawatts of solar generation with battery storage that would come online in late 2027, instead of seeking to build and own all the generation itself. The company would build and own 500 megawatts of battery solar projects at Robins and Moody Air Force Bases.

This step, known as initial criticality, happens when the nuclear fission reaction becomes self-sustaining and is necessary to generate enough heat to produce electricity. Operators will now continue increasing power through multiple steps, ultimately raising power to 100 percent.

Startup testing will continue at Unit 4. This includes demonstrating the integrated operation of the primary coolant system and steam supply system at design temperature and pressure with fuel inside the reactor. 

Georgia Power recently said because of vibrations in the reactor’s cooling system, Unit 4 would not start commercial operation until sometime in the second quarter of 2024, or between April 1 and June 30.

The company said its construction budget won’t be affected if Unit 4 starts by June 30 but it would have to pay $15 million a month in extra construction costs if the project extends into July.

The utility said in a filing to investors that the vibrations “were similar in nature” to those experienced during startup testing for Unit 3, which began commercial operations last summer.

Vogtle Units 3 and 4, two AP-1000 reactors each with a capacity of approximately 1,100 MW, are the first new units to be built in the U.S. in more than 30 years. Cost overruns and construction problems have long delayed the project.

The new Vogtle reactors are currently projected to cost Georgia Power and three other owners $31 billion, according to calculations by The Associated Press. Add in $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid Vogtle owners to walk away from construction, and the total nears $35 billion.

The reactors were originally projected to cost $14 billion and be completed by 2017.

Plant Branch began commercial operation in 1965 and was retired in 2015. Prior to retirement, the plant had four coal-fired units capable of producing 1,540 MW of electricity.

The first phase of the Plant Branch reuse project will include the construction of an ash processing facility, expected to begin by the end of 2023. The facility is expected to be online in 2026 and will process ash that is excavated from the onsite ash ponds.

Once fully operational, Georgia Power said the facility will produce approximately 600,000 dry tons of marketable ash each year. The utility anticipates that throughout the project’s 15-year duration, over 8 million tons of ash will be excavated and processed to be used in concrete production.

The project is in partnership with Eco Material Technologies. The utility has coal ash reuse projects already underway at Plant Bowen near Cartersville and Plant Mitchell near Albany.

Eco Material Technologies, a producer of sustainable cementitious materials and cement replacement products, will manage the project at Plant Branch, including the end use of the excavated coal ash.

In 2022, Georgia Power announced a similar re-use project at Plant Bowen, which is one of the largest projects of its kind in the U.S. The utility said significant construction has been completed for the ash beneficiation plant since it began last September. It added that processing equipment, such as a 1,000 ton silo and dryers, have been installed, as well as process piping around the site. Transportation of harvested ash from Plant Bowen for use in the ready-mix concrete market is expected to begin in 2024.

In 2020, Georgia Power announced the first re-use project at Plant Mitchell. The company continues to remove the stored coal ash at Plant Mitchell’s three ash ponds. Georgia Power said over the next few years, approximately two million tons of ash are expected to be removed from the site to help create Portland cement, which is used to make concrete.

Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal in power plants that, without proper management, can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water and the air. Coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic associated with cancer and various other serious health effects.

In April 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated requirements for the safe handling and disposal of coal ash from coal-fired power plants, which established technical requirements for CCR landfills and surface impoundments.

The utility said the state is experiencing robust economic growth due to an influx of new businesses including manufacturers, the ET industry, data centers, and others. Many of these customers’ projects are larger than historical norms, Georgia Power said, with some individual projects exceeding 1,000 MW.

Georgia Power said its energy projections for the state now reflect energy growth of approximately 6,600 MW through 2030, up from approximately 400 MW previously forecasted in January 2022. For perspective, the utility said its current load growth projections are 17 times higher than what it forecasted in the 2022 IRP.

The utility’s ask in its updated IRP include constructing new conventional plants and procuring power from existing ones, along with the expansion of renewable energy resources, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and new and expanded distributed energy resources (DER).

Additionally, the company is seeking approval of the transmission infrastructure necessary to support these new generation resources to help ensure the continued reliability and resiliency of Georgia’s electric system. Specifically, the filing includes the following requests:

• Certification of a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Mississippi Power.
• Certification of a PPA with Santa Rosa Energy Center LLC for power from an existing natural gas-fired combined cycle generating asset located in Pace, Florida.
• Expansion of the Company’s implementation of BESS, including BESS co-located with existing solar.  
• Construction of new solar resources to be co-located with new BESS.
• Construction of new simple-cycle combustion turbines at Georgia Power’s Plant Yates. The company is proposing to locate the new units at Plant Yates to leverage its current infrastructure and recognize operational efficiencies.
• Addition of new and expanded DER and demand response programs.
• Acquisition of an additional ownership interest in an existing generation asset within the Southern Company footprint

Based on the company’s energy expansion plan in the 2023 IRP Update, the company anticipates adding a total of approximately 10,000 MW of new renewable resources by 2035, which is nearly double the 6,000 MW projected in the 2022 IRP. Notably, the company’s continued expansion of BESS and DER resources, such as those proposed in the 2023 IRP Update, are essential to ensuring that the grid remains reliable and resilient while the company continues adding renewable resources.

2022 IRP programs

Georgia Power continues to implement the programs approved in the 2022 IRP and is in the process of procuring new renewable energy through requests for proposal (RFP) processes, including distributed generation and utility-scale generation resources. In 2024, the company plans to issue a 500 MW energy storage system RFP, with resources anticipated to be online by the end of 2028, as well as an “all-source” RFP to address capacity needs for the 2029 through 2031 period.

In the 2022 IRP, the Georgia PSC provisionally authorized Georgia Power to develop, own, and operate the 265 MW McGrau Ford BESS project. The company continues to pursue the development of this facility and plans to seek final approval from the Georgia PSC by the end of 2024, with commercial operation of the facility projected by the end of 2026.

In addition to new generation resources, the 2022 IRP also included multiple customer programs designed to promote reliability and resiliency, such as the DER Customer Program. The DER Customer Program enables participating customers to subscribe to a resiliency service provided by company-owned, operated, and maintained DER.