On January 31, 2019, Georgia Power, the largest utility in the state submitted its newest integrated resource plan (IRP) to the state utility commission for approval.
The plan calls for the retirement of approximately 1000 MW of coal-fired generation and the construction of 1000 MW of solar generation.
In response to the IRP, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) said the plan doesn’t go far enough.
“While we commend Georgia Power for retiring approximately 1,000 megawatts of coal-fired capacity at Plants Hammond and McIntosh, the utility is only acknowledging the inevitable with the retirement of these two minimally-operating coal plants,” the organization said in a statement.
SACE said that the 1000-MW of solar is welcome but that it is less than was approved in its 2016 plan despite the fact that the cost of solar has dropped 34 percent since 2016.
The group was also critical of the utility sticking with the “status quo” for energy efficiency, saying that “Georgia Power’s own energy efficiency programs shows $6 in savings for every $1 invested,” and that no building on the program is “bad news.”
“The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy calls on the Georgia Public Service Commission to give the state’s monopoly utility company the public oversight required to protect the interests of Georgia’s consumers and businesses,” the statement concluded.
Download the IRP here.
