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Georgia Power

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This article is about the company. For the Blanco Brown song, see Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs.

Georgia Power
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryUtilities
Founded1945; 79 years ago (1945)
Headquarters
Atlanta, Georgia
,
U.S.
Key people
Christopher C. Womack (president & CEO)[1]
Number of employees
8,310 [2]
ParentSouthern Company
Websitewww.georgiapower.com

Georgia Power is an electric utility headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was established as the Georgia Railway and Power Company[3] and began operations in 1902 running streetcars in Atlanta as a successor to the Atlanta Consolidated Street Railway Company.

Georgia Power is the largest of the four electric utilities that are owned and operated by Southern Company. Georgia Power is an investor-owned, tax-paying public utility that serves more than 2.4 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties.[4] It employs approximately 9,000 workers throughout the state. The Georgia Power Building, its primary corporate office building, is located at 241 Ralph McGill Boulevard in downtown Atlanta.

In 2006, the Savannah Electric & Power Company, a separate subsidiary of Southern Company, was merged into Georgia Power.[5]

History

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Map of Georgia Power's bus routes in Rome, Georgia

Originally the Georgia Railway and Power Company, it began in 1902 as a company running the streetcars in Atlanta and was the successor to the Atlanta Consolidated Street Railway Company. In the 1930s, the company published a free newsletter called Two Bells which was distributed on its streetcars. Two Bells was carried on being distributed into the 1960s on the buses of a successor Atlanta Transit Company (ATC).[6] From 1937 until 1950, Georgia Power also operated trolleybuses in Atlanta, and in 1950 its network of 31 electric bus routes was the largest trolley bus system in the United States.[7] After the Atlanta transit strike of 1950, the Atlanta Transit Company took over operations. Atlanta Streetcar was formed in the 2000s to establish a new streetcar service along Peachtree Street.[citation needed]

The company built several dams, including the Morgan Falls Dam just north of the city, and some as far away as the Tallulah River in the northeast Georgia mountains. These hydroelectric dams form Lake Burton, Lake Seed, Lake Rabun, Lake Tallulah Falls, Lake Tugalo, and Lake Yonah, the last two of which straddle the Georgia – South Carolina border on the Tugaloo River.[citation needed]

Following cost increases in August 2018 for building two additional nuclear reactors at its Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, credit rating agency Moody's downgraded Georgia Power's credit ratings from A3 (upper medium) to Baa1 (lower medium).[8][9]

In September 2018, in order to sustain the project, Georgia Power agreed to pay an additional proportion of the costs of the smaller project partners if completion costs exceeded $9.2 billion.[10]

In 2019, Georgia Power's CEO, Paul Bowers, testified before state regulators seeking to get an approval for the company's request to add about $200 a year to the average residential customer's bills.[11] In June 2021, Georgia Power again sought a $235 million a year rates increase once Vogtle unit 3 starts operation, an overall 10% increase in rates, to recover capital construction costs and operating costs.[12]

Oil Pollution Prevention Violation

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In August 2022, the EPA fined Georgia Power $1,906 after an Atlanta facility failed an audit for oil spill prevention. Among other violations, it was found that Georgia Power had no method of predicting a potential oil spill, no containment plan, and inadequate facility drainage.[13]

Coal power

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Main article: Plant Scherer

Georgia Power operates the Robert W. Scherer Power Plant, also known as Plant Scherer, in Monroe County, Georgia. According to Natural History Magazine, in 2006 Plant Scherer was the largest single point-source for carbon dioxide emissions in the United States.[14] It was also ranked the 20th in the world in terms of carbon dioxide emissions by the Center for Global Development on its list of global power plants in November 2007. It was the only power plant in the United States that was listed among the world's top 25 carbon dioxide producers.[15]

Transmission system

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Georgia Power utilizes transmission lines carrying 115,000 volts, 230,000 volts and 500,000 volts. Georgia Power has interconnections with the Tennessee Valley Authority to the north, sister company Alabama Power to the west, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy to the east, and Florida Power & Light, Duke, and the city of Tallahassee to the south.[citation needed]

Transition to renewables and Plant Mitchell shutdown

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Main article: Coal phase out

Georgia Power asked the state's public service commission for approval to convert the coal-fired Plant Mitchell to run on wood fuel. If approved, the retrofit would have begun in 2011 and the biomass plant would have started operating in mid-2012. The 96 MW (129,000 hp) biomass plant would have run on surplus wood from suppliers within a 100 mi (160 km) radius of the plant, which is located near Albany, Georgia. However, in 2014, the company announced it was decertifying the plant and intended to close its operations by April 2015;[16] Plant Mitchell was shut down in 2016; as of 2022, discharged water from the plant's ash pond is being monitored.[17]

Generating facilities

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Georgia Power owns and operates a total of 46 generating plants which include hydroelectric dams, fossil fueled generating plants and nuclear power plants, which provide electricity to more than 2.4 million customers in all but four of Georgia's counties.[18]

Hydroelectric dams

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Georgia Power Hydro incorporates 19 hydro electric generating units to produce a generation capacity of 1,087,536 kilowatts (KW). Georgia Power Hydro facilities also provide more than 45,985 acres (18,609 ha) of water and more than 1,057 mi (1,701 km) of shoreline for habitat and recreational use.

Plant Nearest city Capacity
Barnett Shoals Hydroelectric Generating Plant Athens, Georgia 2,800 kW
Bartletts Ferry Hydroelectric Generating Plant Columbus, Georgia 173,000 kW
Burton Hydroelectric Generating Plant Clayton, Georgia 6,120 kW
Estatoah Hydroelectric Generating Plant Mountain City, Georgia 240 kW
Flint River Hydroelectric Generating Plant Albany, Georgia 5,400 kW
Goat Rock Hydroelectric Generating Plant Columbus, Georgia 38,600 kW
Langdale Hydroelectric Generating Plant West Point, Georgia 1,040 kW
Lloyd Shoals Hydroelectric Generating Plant Jackson, Georgia 14,400 kW
Morgan Falls Hydroelectric Generating Plant Sandy Springs, Georgia 16,800 kW
Nacoochee Hydroelectric Generating Plant Clayton, Georgia 4,800 kW
North Highlands Hydroelectric Generating Plant Columbus, Georgia 29,600 kW
Oliver Dam Hydroelectric Generating Plant Columbus, Georgia 60,000 kW
Riverview Hydroelectric Generating Plant West Point, Georgia 480 kW
Rocky Mountain Hydroelectric Generating Plant Rome, Georgia 215,256 kW
Sinclair Dam Hydroelectric Generating Plant Eatonton, Georgia 45,000 kW
Tallulah Falls Hydroelectric Generating Plant Tallulah Falls, Georgia 72,000 kW
Terrora Hydroelectric Generating Plant Tallulah Falls, Georgia 16,000 kW
Tugalo Hydroelectric Generating Plant Lakemont, Georgia 45,000 kW
Wallace Dam Hydroelectric Generating Plant Eatonton, Georgia 321,300 kW
Yonah Hydroelectric Generating Plant Lakemont, Georgia 22,500 kW

Fossil fuel power plants

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Plant Nearest city Number of units Capacity
Bowen Steam-Electric Generating Plant (Plant Bowen) Cartersville, Georgia 4 3,160,000 kW
Harllee Branch Jr. Steam-Electric Generating Plant (Plant Branch) (CLOSED) Eatonton, Georgia 4 1,539,700 kW
William P. Hammond Steam-Electric Generating Plant Rome, Georgia 4 800,000 kW
Kraft Steam-Electric Generating Plant Savannah, Georgia 4 281,136 kW
John J. McDonough Steam-Electric Generating Plant Smyrna, Georgia 2 490,000 kW
McIntosh Steam-Electric Generating Plant Savannah, Georgia 9 810,000 kW
McIntosh Combined Cycle Plant Rincon, Georgia 2 1,240,000 kW
Clifford Braswall McManus Steam-Electric Generating Plant Brunswick, Georgia 2 596,000 kW
W. E. Mitchell Steam-Electric Generating Plant (31°26'41.13"N, 84°8'2.34"W) Albany, Georgia 4 243,000 kW
Robins Steam-Electric Generating Plant Warner Robins, Georgia 2 166,000 kW
Robert W. Scherer Steam-Electric Generating Plant (Plant Scherer) Juliette, Georgia 4 3,272,000 kW
Wansley Steam-Electric Generating Plant (Plant Wansley) Carrollton, Georgia 2 951,872 kW
Allen B. Wilson Combustion Turbine Plant Waynesboro, Georgia 354,100 kW
Eugene A. Yates Steam-Electric Generating Plant Newnan, Georgia 2 700,000 kW

Nuclear power plants

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Plant Nearest city Number of units Capacity
Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Waynesboro, Georgia 4 4,536,000 kW
Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Power Plant Baxley, Georgia 2 1,726,000 kW

References

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  1. ^ "Background - Georgia Power". Archived from the original on December 17, 2008. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
  2. ^ "SEC Filings - Southern Company" (Press release). Southern Company.
  3. ^ See generally Carson, O. E. "The Trolley Titans" (Interurban Special No. 76)(Glendale, 1981)(0916374467).
  4. ^ "Background - Georgia Power". Archived from the original on December 17, 2008. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
  5. ^ "A State of Innovation: Georgia Power". Georgia Historical Society. July 20, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  6. ^ Kurtz, p.69
  7. ^ Sebree, Mac; and Ward, Paul (1974). The Trolley Coach in North America, pp. 14–19. Los Angeles: Interurbans. LCCN 74-20367.
  8. ^ Ondieki, Anastaciah (August 9, 2018). "Moody's downgrades Georgia Power's credit rating over new Plant Vogtle costs". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  9. ^ Walton, Rod (August 9, 2018). "'Vogtle Cost Upgrade Causes Rethinking of $25B Nuclear Plant's Future". Power Engineering. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  10. ^ "Vogtle owners vote to continue construction". World Nuclear News. September 27, 2018. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
  11. ^ Kempner, Matt (October 1, 2019). "Georgia Power questioned on plan to add $200 annually to average bill". WSBTV. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  12. ^ "Georgia Power seeks rate increase to pay for Vogtle". Nuclear Engineering International. June 21, 2021. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
  13. ^ "DOCKET NO.: CWA-04-2022-0406(b)" (PDF). EPA Administrative Enforcement Dockets. August 2, 2022. Retrieved October 3, 2022.
  14. ^ "Natural History Magazine | Feature". Archived from the original on December 1, 2008. Retrieved September 2, 2008.
  15. ^ "CGD ranks CO2 emissions from power plants worldwide | EurekAlert! Science News". Eurekalert.org. November 14, 2007. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  16. ^ "Plant Branch still operating, closure imminent". The Union-Recorder. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  17. ^ "Plant Mitchell". Georgia Power. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  18. ^ "Plants - Georgia Power". Archived from the original on December 4, 2008. Retrieved November 24, 2008.

Notes

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  • Kurtz, Wilber, "Technical Advisor: The Making of Gone With The Wind. The Hollywood Journals", Atlanta Historical Journal, Vol. XXII, No.2, Summer, 1978.
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