Higher electricity costs due to Plant Vogtle Units 3 & 4 will affect
Georgia’s EMCs as well as Georgia Power customers.
Map of Georgia Electric Membership Corporations
The role of Georgia Electric Membership Corporations
(EMCs) has been overlooked in the discussions on cost overruns and possible
abandonment of Plant Vogtle Units 3 & 4.
EMC customers may be under the mistaken impression that
if the Southern Company decides to go ahead with construction of Units 3 &
4, and the Georgia Public Service Commission approves, that any increases in
electricity costs will be borne only by Georgia Power customers.
This is incorrect. EMC customers will also have to bare
part of the burden of higher electricity costs.
Confusion on this point may help explain why EMC
customers have been less vocal in opposition to the rate increases – they simply
are unaware that their electricity costs will rise along with those of Georgia
Power Customers.
In the case of the EMCs, increased costs to Oglethorpe
Power will be passed along to the EMCs in the form of higher wholesale
electricity prices, which the EMCs will pass along to their customers.
Last week, Oglethorpe Power Co., which owns 30% of the
Vogtle nuclear plant, requested $1.6 billion in additional support from the
Department of Energy, E&E News reports.
Oglethorpe Power Corporation, which supplies wholesale
electric power and is owned by 38 of the state’s 41 EMCs, has kept a low
profile, allowing Southern Company to take the lead.
Nearly half of all Georgia residents receive their
electric service from EMCs, according to Oglethorpe Power.
Georgia Power will file its next report on August 31.
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