Tag Archives: GA PSC

Solar PV costs dropped 50% last year: time for south Georgia to lead in solar power

Solar energy continues to grow by leaps and bounds worldwide. Except in Georgia. Maybe we should change that. There’s an election going on right now.

Frank Jordans wrote for AP 11 June 2012, $257 billion invested in renewable energy in 2011,

Global investment in renewable energy reached a record of $257 billion last year, with solar attracting more than half the total spending, according to a U.N. report released Monday.

Investment in solar energy surged to $147 billion in 2011, a year-on-year increase of 52 percent thanks to strong demand for rooftop photovoltaic installations in Germany, Italy, China and Britain.

Large-scale solar thermal installations in Spain and the United States also contributed to growth during a fiercely competitive year for the solar industry. Several large American and German manufacturers fell victim to price pressure from Chinese rivals that helped to halve the cost of photovoltaic modules in 2011.

Lower solar PV module price should mean more people can afford to install solar electricity, which should mean more jobs for people to install it. How much lower? According to the report:

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Arrogance of (Georgia) Power —Michael Noll

Received yesterday on Smart Metering in Finland Compared to Georgia Power; also as a facebook note. -jsq

ONLY a monopoly like Georgia Power can proclaim to be “environmentally responsible” yet operate some of the worst coal power plants in the nation. Its Scherer Plant near Macon even leads the pack in regard to greenhouse gas emissions. Do they not understand the reality of global warming? Do they not notice ongoing drought conditions throughout the country (see http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/)? And why, in the context of these drought conditions, are they still investing in technologies (e.g. coal, nuclear, biomass) that need enormous amounts of water for cooling purposes?

ONLY a monopoly like Georgia Power can claim to “care” for the well being of our society when they operate the nation’s largest biomass incinerator, run the nation’s worst coal firing plant, and are pushing for new nuclear power plants. Have they not heard of Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island? How can they still ignore the mounting evidence in regard to the side-effects of the vast pollution coming from their coal and biomass plants (see http://www.wiregrass-ace.org/linked/second-opinion.pdf)?

ONLY a monopoly like Georgia Power can pretend to “respect” its customers when it forces them to pay for the construction of nuclear power plants nobody wants, or when it chooses intimidation as a tool to push through “smart meters”. The notion that you can’t have electricity without “smart meters” is not only ludicrous but reminds one on “leadership qualities” you expect to find in North Korea but not in the US. By the way, one should note that states like California have given their customers the possibility (dare I say right?) to “opt out” (see http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/more-california-utilities-required-let-customers-opt-out-smart-meters.html ).

by Michael Noll on Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 12:33pm ·

PS: In case anyone wonders, I am not differentiating between Georgia Power and the entity that controls it: Southern Company.

Smart Metering in Finland Compared to Georgia Power

Georgia Power: putting customer convenience and utility last! Let’s compare how Georgia Power is “selling” its smart meters to how one of the leaders in smart metering in Europe does it. Let’s compare Finland to Georgia Power. The result may give you reason to vote in the Public Service Commissioner election going on right now.

Current Smart Meter customer benefits include:

With the Smart Meter program, your electric meter will be read remotely through communication towers. In the future, a number of new customer benefits will become available, including access to online energy usage information.
  • Reading your meter and generating your bill without having a representative visit your property on a regular basis.
  • Reducing the time needed to handle service orders, such as starting or stopping power.
  • Remotely checking a meter to ensure it is working properly.
  • Reducing the number of vehicles on the road resulting in less pollution and fuel saving because in-person meter readings are not required.
  • Power outage notification — In the event of a power outage in your area, Smart Meters help us better manage power restoration.
Future Smart Meter benefits include:
  • Accessing energy usage information online — view your hourly and daily usage.
  • Offering innovative rate options that meet your lifestyle — better manage your energy usage and control your energy bill.

All of the immediate benefits are tailored for the power company, not the customer. Sure, you might like not having a Georgia Power employee on your property, but the real benefit is to Georgia Power in reducing costs. The direct benefits to the customer are all deferred to some unspecified time in the future.

Meanwhile, for Finland, Look at page 32 of this report: European Smart Metering Landscape Report, by Stephan Renner, Mihaela Albu, Henk van Elburg, Christoph Heinemann, Artur Łazicki, Lauri Penttinen, Francisco Puente, Hanne Sæle, smartregions.net, Vienna, February 2011,

There are some minimum functional requirements for the metering system defined by the regulator in Finland:
Figure 1: Regulation and implementation of smart metering in Europe, page 14
  • Remotely readable hourly interval measurement data available next day to market actors including the customer;
  • If requested by the customer, the DSO must deliver metering equipment that has standardised connection for real-time hourly based monitoring;
  • Consumer must receive the data at the latest when the electricity seller receives it;
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Professor unrepentant in latest fracking payola case

Apparently the natural gas industry pays professors to greenwash their polluting product, like back in the hey-day of radio record companies used to pay disk jockies to play their records. Remember: natural gas from fracking is the main thing Southern Company and Georgia Power are switching to from coal (not that they’re even abandoning coal, just rebranding it as “21st century coal”). That and their nuke boondoggle at Plant Vogtle. All approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission, all of whose members apparently accept massive direct or indirect contributions from the utilities they regulate. Two GA PSC Commissioners slots are up for election right now.

The professor most recently found to be in the pay of a fracking company when he reported on fracking is unrepentant. Terrence Henry wrote for State Impact Texas yesterday, Texas Professor On the Defensive Over Fracking Money

So the questions remaining are: Why didn’t Groat disclose this in the study? And did he fail to tell anyone at the University about it?

The professor would not agree to an interview, but in an email to StateImpact Texas he says the Public Accountability Initiative report is “a mixture of truths, half truths, and unfounded conclusions based [on] incorrect interpretations of information. I don’t want to discuss it.”

The University of Texas requires that financial conflicts of interest be disclosed by employees when it has “potential for directly and significantly affecting the design, conduct, or reporting of … research or is in an entity whose financial interest appears to be affected by that research.”

Dean Sharon Mosher of the Jackson School of Geosciences says that Groat submitted the financial conflict of interest form to her office in previous years, but that he had not done so this year. “I was not aware that he was still a member of the board,” Mosher tells StateImpact Texas. “Had I known he was still a member of the board and being paid, I would have insisted that he disclosed it.”

What report? Follow the links in here. Terrence Henry wrote for State Impact Texas 23 July, Fracking Company Paid Texas Professor Behind Water Contamination Study,

Earlier this year, a study led by Dr. Charles “Chip” Groat for the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin made headlines for saying there was no link between fracking and groundwater contamination. (When we reported on the study in February, we noted that the study also found some serious issues around the safety and regulation of fracking that weren’t getting much press coverage.)

But according to a new report out today by the Public Accountablitiy Initiative (PAI), a nonprofit watchdog group, the conclusions in Groat’s report aren’t as clear cut as initially reported. And Groat himself did not disclose significant financial ties to the fracking industry.

Groat, a former Director of the U.S. Geological Survey and professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, also sits on the board of Plains Exploration and Production Company, a Houston-based company that conducts drilling and fracking in Texas and other parts of the country. According to the new report (and a review of the company’s financial reports by Bloomberg) Groat received more than $400,000 from the drilling company last year alone, more than double his salary at the University. And one of the shales examined in Groat’s fracking study is currently being drilled by the company, the report says.

Since 2007, Groat has received over $1.5 million in cash and stock awards from the company, and he currently holds over $1.6 million in company stock, according to the PAI report. (Update: we clarified with PAI, and that $1.6 million in stock comes from the stock awards over the years. PAI says Groat’s total compensation from the company is close to $2 million.)

And it gets worse from there: rough drafts published, unsubstantiated peer review claims, etc.

This isn’t an isolated case:

This isn’t the first time that academic studies of drilling have been called into question because of industry ties. In an earlier report on a State University of New York at Buffalo study on fracking’s environmental risks, Public Accountability Initiative found that it “suffered a number of critical shortcomings” and the “report’s authors had strong industry ties.”

And in today’s investigation from Bloomberg, they found other instances of industry influence and financial ties at Pennsylvania State University and University of Wyoming.

Do we want to trade air pollution by coal for groundwater pollution by fracking? When we have a better future already at hand through conservation and efficiency along with solar and wind power?

-jsq

4 of 5 incumbent GA PSC Commissioners accept massive utility campaign contributions

Could contributions produce influence? Neither of the incumbent Public Service Commissioners showed up for last night’s GPB debate, just as they didn’t show up for the previous weekend’s GIPL debate. Saturday the AJC examined the incumbents’ campaign finance and regulatory records, and let’s look a bit into how they’ve acted as regulators towards their biggest indirect contributors: Georgia Power.

Kristi E. Swartz wrote for the Augusta Chronicle or AP 21 July 2012, Donors to Georgia Public Service Commission members vested in decisions,

Four of Georgia’s utility regulators have accepted at least 70 percent of their campaign contributions from companies and people that could profit from the agency’s decisions, a review of five years of campaign finance records by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed.

The fifth member of the state Public Service Commission, Tim Echols, campaigned on the promise that he wouldn’t take money from employees or lobbyists for businesses regulated by the agency.

Even so, nearly one in five dollars in Echols’ contributions came from people or companies whose business is affected by PSC decisions, the review found.

Together, the PSC commissioners took in nearly $750,000 in the last five years, records show. Two of them — Stan Wise and Chuck Eaton — are seeking re-election this year to their $116,452-a-year posts.

Wise and Eaton would be the two incumbents who can’t be bothered to show up for debates. Doesn’t make them look very responsive to the people, does it? Who do they respond to, then?

A review of major decisions that have come before the PSC in the past five years shows utilities have received much — but not all — of what they have asked for.

Georgia Power donors

In the past five years, for example, Georgia Power’s rates have risen 24 percent, although they dipped in June. The PSC must sign off on the company’s rate changes.

Current and former employees of Georgia Power, its parent Southern Co. and its law firm, Troutman Sanders, poured $52,650 into the campaign coffers of four of the sitting PSC members.

A Georgia Power spokeswoman argued that including Troutman Sanders and other company vendors in an analysis of spending “is false.” But critics say including them is critical to capturing the full influence of the utilities on the PSC.

Influence like this? Melissa Stiers wrote for GPB News 19 July 2011, PSC Nixes Vogtle Cost Check,

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Debate: Georgia Public Service Comission candidates this afternoon on GBP

Rumor is that, like last weekend, the incumbents won't show up for this afternoon's Public Service Commission debates, this time on Georgia Public Television.

GPB does still list them as "invited", with this schedule for today, Sunday 22 July 2012:

Date and TimeDebateInvited Candidates
Sunday, July 22 at 4:30 pm Public Service Commission District 3 Republican Chuck Eaton and Matt Reid
Sunday, July 22 at 5 pm Public Service Commission, District 5 – Republican Pam Davidson and Stan Wise

If the incumbents don't bother to show up, how responsive to the people are they?

-jsq

I think voting on a Saturday is super extra great and convenient —Gretchen Quarterman

Gretchen reminded us to vote early yesterday. She got on TV to do that.

Greg Gullberg wrote for WCTV yesterday, Voting On Saturday For First Time In Ga. History

For the first time ever, Georgia voters statewide were able to cast their ballots on a Saturday. And for some it was their best chance.

Gretchen on WCTV “I think voting on a Saturday is super extra great and convenient,” said Gretchen Quarterman, Georgia voter. “To vote on Saturday is particularly convenient. You can just fit it in your errands.”

“It gives the opportunity for voters to get out and vote for those who have to work and it’s an inconvenience for them during the week,” said Sarah Stewart, Georgia Voter.

The extra day comes after the Georgia legislature shortened the early voting period for the Primaries. They took it down from 45 days to only 21.

In Lowndes County, plenty of people are taking advantage of early voting.

So what was Gretchen doing there?

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Vogtle nuke overruns could be larger than entire Georgia state budget

Georgia Sierra Club Footnotes Issue #61 19 July 2012, Chances that Vogtle 3 & 4 Will be Built? 50%.

Already they are almost a billion dollars over and running behind schedule. People closely following this slow-motion train wreck doubt that the actual cost of Vogtle 3 and 4 will be less than $20 billion — and that is excluding capital costs, which ratepayers will be paying for the rest of their lives (like our house mortgages). To put that in perspective, the State of Georgia budget is about $20 billion annually.

The Public Service Commission has a third party monitor who helps them assess whether the project and associated costs are on track. Right now, Georgia Power is on the hook for $400 million in cost overruns. This fall will likely be a critical time for Georgia regulators to make a go/no-go decision. In the meantime, now is your chance to find out whether the two Public Service Commissioners who are up for election this year, Chuck Eaton and Stan Wise, deserve another term. Georgia Public Broadcasting will be hosting a debate which will air Sunday at 5pm. Click here for the broadcast, and don’t forget to vote on July 31st!

According to GPB, the PSC debate schedule for Sunday 22 July 2012 is:

Date and TimeDebateInvited Candidates
Sunday, July 22
at 4:30 pm		 Public Service Commission
District 3 Republican		 Chuck Eaton and Matt Reid
Sunday, July 22
at 5 pm		 Public Service Commission,
District 5 – Republican		 Pam Davidson and Stan Wise

Maybe, unlike for last weekend’s PSC debates, the incumbents will bother to show up. If they don’t, how responsive to the people are they?

-jsq

IKEA building almost as much solar as Southern Company

IKEA has already deployed more solar power than Southern Company, and plans almost as much as SO’s total planned solar generation. Remind me, which one is the energy company? Maybe we need to elect people who will remind Southern Company and Georgia Power.

Remember Southern Company bragged earlier this month about its first big solar project coming online, 1 megawatt in Upson? IKEA plans to install that much solar in Atlanta this year on top of its furniture store:

Atlanta, Georgia: With a store size of 366,000 square feet, ft2 (~34,000 square metres, m2) on 15 acres (~6 hectares), the solar program will use 129,800 ft2 (~12,060 m2) at 1,038 kilowatts (kW) with 4,326 solar panels generating 1,421,300kWh/year. This is equivalent to reducing 1,080 tons of carbon-dioxide (CO2), 192 cars’ emissions or powering 122 homes.

IKEA plans more than that in Savannah, 1.5 megawatts:

Savannah, Georgia Distribution Centre: With a size of 750,000 ft2 (~69,700 m2) on 115 acres (~46.5 hectares), the solar program will use 187,500 ft2 (~17,400 m2) at 1,500kW with 6,250 solar panels generating 2,029,500kWh/year. This is equivalent to reducing 1,542 tons of CO2, 274 cars’ emissions or powering 175 homes.

Sure, but Southern Company already did it first, right? Nope, IKEA already powered up a megawatt in Houston, and already had some in Frisco and Round Rock, Texas, making IKEA already the largest solar owner in Texas.

As Kirsty Hessman put it in Earth Techling 8 December 2011,

They don’t call it the Sunbelt for nothing, and Ikea plans to take full advantage of the salubrious solar situation down South.

That was when IKEA was planning the Houston, Frisco, and Round Rock, Texas solar installations. Half a year later, they’re up and running. When will your new nukes be finished (if ever), Southern Company?

But back to solar. According to IKEA PR 9 July 2012, IKEA plans 38 MW of solar:

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GA PSC Forum videos online now

I hear somebody asked about Georgia Power's Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) stealth tax charge to customers for Southern Company's new nukes at Plant Vogtle. Maybe some of these candidates for the Public Service Commission could help get Georgia Power and SO to stop suppressing solar and wind in Georgia, maybe even to lead the way.

GIPL wrote today,

Thanks to everyone who came out to our Political Forum on the Georgia Public Service Commission. We had a great turnout, and learned a lot about the 2012 candidates for the PSC.

This is a statewide election, so please share this video far and wide with your friends. The primary election will be held on July 31, and the PSC will also be on the ballot in November.

Participants in last night's forum included (from left to right) Republican Matthew Reid and Democrat Steve Oppenheimer, who are both challenging incumbent Republican Commissioner Chuck Eaton in District 3, and Republican Pam Davidson and Libertarian David Staples, who are running against incumbent Republican Commissioner Stan Wise in District 5.

Beth Bond from Southeast Green moderated the media panel featuring Kristi Swartz from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Walter Jones from Morris News Service, and Jonathan Shapiro from WABE.

Georgia Interfaith Power & Light hosted this forum. Co-hosts included 14 local environmental, religious, and advocacy organizations, including Southeast Green, Georgia WAND, GA Sierra Club, Civic League of Regional Atlanta, Glenn Memorial UMC Environmental Committee, GreenLaw, Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, Common Cause, League of Women Voters, Georgia Watch, Ryan Taylor Architects LLC, Sustainable Atlanta, Regional Council of Churches of Atlanta, Inc., Trinity Presbyterian Church Sustainability Committee, and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Here's the video:

-jsq