Georgia Power Co. now says that the first of two nuclear reactors it's building at Plant Vogtle near Augusta might not begin generating electricity until as late as March 2023. With overruns announced Thursday, the project will cost its owners nearly $30 billion.
Georgia Power plans to power down the last of its coal-fired plants by 2035, when Plant Bowen in northwest Georgia is poised to close, according to long-term planning documents the company filed Monday.
Georgia Power Co. could shut down all but one of its coal-fired power plants by 2029 under a new plan filed with the state Public Service Commission. The document says Georgia Power would close down all of its coal plants by the end of 2028 except for two mammoth units at Plant Bowen in Cartersville.
Georgia’s top environmental regulator says his agency is adjusting to what he called the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “new interpretation” of an Obama-era coal ash disposal rule.
For the past several years, Georgia Power has gone to great lengths to skirt the federal rule requiring coal-fired power plants to safely dispose of massive amounts of toxic waste they produced.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency is taking a stronger role in keeping coal ash, the toxic material left over from burning coal to make electricity, away from groundwater.
Georgia Power plans to excavate and remove the ash from 19 ponds and close the other 10 ponds in place. Lawyers for the Sierra Club have argued the PSC failed to take into account Georgia Power’s culpability in creating the coal ash problem to begin with, and thus should not be allowed to pass all of those costs onto customers.
Recently discovered “construction quality” issues mean the first of two new nuclear reactors being built at the plant south of Augusta may not be completed before February 2023.
It’s getting more urgent than ever to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy to minimize the devastation of climate change, according to a landmark report last week. And solar panels are cheaper than ever. But for Georgia Power customers, it’s not quite that simple. Most still need to get some of their electricity from the utility, and a program that made that mix of power sources affordable has just filled up.
Here in Georgia, the state Environmental Protection Division has issued the first proposed permit allowing Georgia Power to press forward with plans to leave more than 1 million tons of coal ash in an unlined pit at Floyd County’s Plant Hammond near the Coosa River.
Plant Vogtle’s first new nuclear reactor may not start producing energy for Georgia consumers until at least next June, which would be a longer delay than Georgia Power predicted just last month.
Georgia energy regulators will decide this fall how much of the costs of building the first of two additional nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle Georgia Power can recover from customers.
Hot functional testing has begun on the first of the new reactors, Unit 3, at the plant south of Augusta. That’s the final series of major tests the reactor must pass prior to initial fuel load.
