The Georgia Power Company 2023 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) Update is problematic—built on flawed assumptions that lead to a predetermined outcome favoring corporate profits over the economics, the health & safety, and the public policy interest.

  • Georgia Power Company's Forecasted Peak Demand versus Actual Peak Demand

    Georgia Power Company claims in this 2023 IRP Update that load growth is “unprecedented.”

    Compare this claim to the load growth they claimed in the 2007 IRP, the 2010 IRP, and the 2013 IRP—each of these IRPs forecasted much higher load through 2030 than this so-called “unprecedented” load growth today. The Budget 2007 Total Peak forecast was a key assumption used by Georgia Power Company to imprudently justify Vogtle 3&4, but was clearly wrong and reflects on Georgia Power Company’s poor track record on forecasting.

    A key pillar of Georgia Power Company’s load growth outlook was the $5 Billion Rivian electric vehicle manufacturing plant just east of Atlanta. Rivian announced in March 2024 that it would pause its plans to move forward with the factory.

  • Historical Average Electricity Rates by Customer Class

    Residential rates have risen 68% since the 2007 IRP when GPC sought authorization for Vogtle 3&4. Industrial rates only rose 28% in that time. Inflation rose 49% in that time. It is clear that Residential Ratepayers are absorbing the lion’s share of rate increases. A primary reason for this is the lack of a Utility Consumers Counsel as well as active lack of regulation of Integrated Resource Planning and subsequent Rate Cases dating to the 2007 IRP.

    The upshot is that Residential Ratepayers have been hosed at the expense of industrial and commercial ratepayers. This is 100% directly attributable to the 100% defunding of the Consumer Utility Counsel and the lack of representation before the Commission.

    The massive inflation we’ve seen in the past several years has been due imprudent IRPs put forward by Georgia Power Company with the express intent to maximize corporate profits at the expense of all ratepayers but especially Residential Customers.

The Self-Serving "Fossil Fuel Bonanza" in the Georgia Power Company 2023 Integrated Resource Plan Update

The Self-Serving "Fossil Fuel Bonanza" in the Georgia Power Company 2023 Integrated Resource Plan Update

Army Excoriates Georgia Power Company On Their Failed 2023 Integrated Resource Plan Update

Army Excoriates Georgia Power Company On Their Failed 2023 Integrated Resource Plan Update

Consumer Utility Counsel - Hardworking Georgians Need an Advocate Who Gives a Damn, Unlike the Georgia Power Company Service Commission

Consumer Utility Counsel - Hardworking Georgians Need an Advocate Who Gives a Damn, Unlike the Georgia Power Company Service Commission

How is the 2023 IRP Update flawed?

What are the practical and low-cost solutions to help meet electric load growth in Georgia?

Georgia Power Company 2023 IRP Update Rebuttal Testimony (source: https://psc.ga.gov/search/facts-document/?documentId=218033) is an example of the manipulation the Company performs in this IRP and all past IRPs, in order to twist how it presents the Plant Yates CTs and other fossil assets.

In the Rebuttal Testimony (Exhibit 3), Georgia Power Company points toward the low cost of gas peaking technology. We see in this “Capital Cost Comparison” that Utility-Scale Solar PV is $700/kilowatt and for Gas Peaking it is the same $700/kW. We also see that for Utility-Scale Solar PV + Storage it is $1,075/kilowatt. What Georgia Power Company does not bring to your attention is this is a Capital Cost Comparison, which does not compare fuel costs or operating costs or maintenance costs or any other lifetime costs that do not appear in this graph, which is why Georgia Power Company selected this graph only from the LCOE study.

This is a fundamental misapplication of an LCOE comparison, which is meant to capture capacity and energy costs and indeed “costs levelized over the operating life.” This can be seen in the very next graphs in this report that Georgia Power Company cites. To be clear, Georgia Power Company specifically used this LCOE graph because it is capital costs only and ignores the greater total levelized costs of gas peaker energy.

In these subsequent graphs, the 2023 Lazard studies shows that Utility-Scale Solar PV costs on a $ per MWh basis are between $24 and $96/MWh, and for Utility-Scale Solar PV + Storage costs are between $46 and $102/MWh. Meanwhile gas peakers are between $115 and $221/MWh.

Conclusion: The Plant Yates CTs are immediately more expensive than utility-scale solar PV + storage.

This is a clear demonstration by Georgia Power Company of the manipulation of data to conform to the Company's desired outcome of selling natural gas to benefit its many affiliate companies whose profits flow to the same corporate parent as Georgia Power Company and to lock in decades of natural gas sales. The Plant Yates CTs would operate into the 2070s.

Source: https://www.lazard.com/media/2ozoovyg/lazards-lcoeplus-april-2023.pdf