For two years I've been calling Georgia's Plant Vogtle the most expensive power plant on earth. It's not a moniker I enjoy using because Georgia is not a rich state. Relative to all 50 states, Georgia is in the bottom 10 in terms of wealth and income. Yet here we are building the only nuclear plant in the United States, widely understood to be an expensive undertaking. At $35 billion and still not done, it comes at an incomprehensible cost to people who can ill afford to purchase the most expensive electricity in the world. Calculations by Ga PSC are that power produced by Vogtle will be a staggering $170/MWh.Â
Yesterday a news source India.com, posted a slideshow of the 10 most expensive buildings in the world. Guess which U.S. state has the only building in the collection? That's right, Georgia. In fact, 8 of the 10 most expensive buildings are nuclear power plants. And Georgia's nuclear Plant Vogtle ranked extremely high at #3, but they erred. The UK's nuclear Hinkley Point C was listed as the second most expensive building at $31 billion, but Plant Vogtle is now at $35 billion.
On July 31st, after 13 years of construction, Plant Vogtle’s Unit 3 entered commercial operation. Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission (Ga PSC) have been active in promoting this milestone as an accomplishment for clean energy. But clean energy wasn’t why Plant Vogtle was built. This can be seen by Georgia Power’s plans to add 2300 megawatts of methane gas to their generation mix. And the Ga PSC has resisted strong public and community 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.
Then why was Plant Vogtle 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 inappropriate now. Indeed, over 32 states have changed their utility business model to meet performance metrics instead of building power plants. 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, Georgia’s electric bills will soon be the highest in the nation and may already get there due to nuclear energy.
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. Energy efficiency technologies and connected buildings can create virtual power plants. Vehicle to grid batteries and distributed energy like rooftop solar allow customers to participate.
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 business model and regulatory reform. We can’t have a reasonable energy transition if the incumbent interests are allowed to dominate the decision making.