Plant Vogtle: Time for reform

As we know, Georgia is the only state in the nation building a nuclear power plant. On July 3, Plant Vogtle’s Unit 3 entered commercial operation after 13 years of construction. Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission (GA PSC) have been active in promoting this milestone as important for Georgia and an accomplishment for reliable, clean energy.

But is it? 

First, Georgia is one of only four states with no Consumer Utility Counsel (CUC), a state agency designated to function as an independent ratepayer advocate at state utility commissions. The Georgia legislature defunded our CUC in 2008, the year before Plant Vogtle began. The loss of this agency cannot be overstated: With no advocate negotiating on behalf of residential customers, Plant Vogtle proceeded with no consumer protections. It is difficult to believe a CUC would have allowed this.

Second, the Ga PSC celebrates a ‘constructive regulatory relationship’ with Georgia Power. Commissioners believe that a friendly relationship benefits all parties, but accomodating a monopoly utility is not the proper role of a regulator. Commissioners are expected to protect the public from monopoly overreach, and that requires neutrality, not friendship, especially with no Consumer Utility Counsel. 

We see the result: At $35 billion, Plant Vogtle is the most expensive power plant ever built on earth, and enormous risks looming for customers. This is why 49 other states aren’t building nuclear: costs are prohibitive, and there are far more affordable clean energy sources. 

Georgia Power executives and commissioners are now claiming that clean energy is the key benefit of Plant Vogtle. But clean energy wasn’t why Plant Vogtle was built. This can be seen by Georgia Power’s plans to add enormous amounts of methane gas to their generation mix. This commission has also resisted strong public pressure to adopt net metering, which would lift sunny Georgia out of 46th place for rooftop solar. 

And we know for one other, bigger reason: the same year Plant Vogtle began construction. Southern Company sent 63 lobbyists to D.C. to oppose the American Clean Energy Act of 2009 – double the number of any other utility. It was clearly important to Southern Company that this act fail, and fail it did. It is extraordinary and disingenuous to now claim that clean energy is the reason for Plant Vogtle.

Plant Vogtle was built because Georgia Power is operating off an old business model where building power plants delivers big profits. This business model dates to the mid-20th century when America’s grid needed rapid build-out, but it is harmful now. Over 32 states have changed their utility business model to performance metrics instead of building new generation. Georgia should, too. This is especially urgent because claims that new generation is needed are already taking place. If Georgia Power is not reined in with a state regulatory agency that protects the public interest, our electric bills will soon be the highest in the nation. They are already in the top 10 for most expensive bills. 

Georgia Power’s share of Plant Vogtle’s cost overruns are an enormous $10 billion, which they will seek approval for customers to pay. This amount of money is higher than any state commission has ever seen in the history of the United States – by a factor of 5. Can a regulatory agency that is friendly with the utility fairly judge whether customers should pay for Georgia Power’s mistakes on this project? 

But there’s an even more important issue at stake. Commissioners should not continue to vote on any rate proceeding, and certainly not one of this size, because this is a commission in chaos. Last year, the GA PSC was the subject of three lawsuits, all of which it lost. In one of those lawsuits, a federal judge determined that the Ga PSC is operating with an illegal PSC district map and that elections disenfranchise Black voters: in 140 years, only one Black person has been elected to the commission. The court issued an injunction, which is why voters did not see two PSC seats on the ballot in last year’s midterm elections. 

The environmental injustice implications are enormous. Last year, over 240,000 Georgia Power customers were disconnected from power. Almost 70 percent of those disconnections were people of color in a state with only a 30 percent Black population. Power disconnections are life-threatening and destabilizing and often lead to homelessness. Vogtle’s cost overruns could increase electric bills by nearly 20 percent and would deeply harm the very populations the lawsuit seeks to protect.

Georgia Power trades off the seemingly logical belief that a growing economy and population means growing energy demand. But it’s not true. Advances in lighting technology, as well as building and appliance efficiencies, have kept sales flat in Georgia and nationally. Georgia’s energy sales in 2021 were the same as they were in 2006, but claims are already being made that more generation is needed. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. The beauty of the digital era is that a new and better grid is possible using data analytics, incorporating grid edge services, and utilizing smart meters to reduce expensive peak demand. Cheap renewables like wind and solar coupled with storage are here and can be coupled with virtual power plants. Vehicle-to-grid batteries and distributed energy like rooftop solar allow customers to participate. This is what grid modernization means. Building expensive generation sources far from populated areas has been inappropriate for decades. 

People have no choice who their electricity provider is and rightfully expect that state regulators are working to modernize the grid and keep bills affordable. When we find that they aren’t, those responsible must be held accountable. One place to start is by creating an independent state commission to drive urgently needed reform. 

But first, state officials must prohibit commissioners from voting on the largest rate increase in the history of the United States. With this much money on the line, the people of Georgia deserve an elected body that resulted from fair elections, not one in chaos from ongoing litigation.