ATLANTA – Georgia Power Co. customers will see electric bills go up an average of about $5 monthly after a Thursday decision by the state Public Service Commission. storyPhotos();
State law allows utilities to recover the full price of fuel needed to generate electricity, without profit or mark-up. Georgia Power had asked the PSC for more money both to repay about $400 million in fuel costs that haven’t been recovered and to try to collect an adequate amount for future energy supplies.
Commissioners did not agree with the company’s $561 million-a-year request, and instead approved a reduced plan put together by commission staff, a committee of major industrial power users and the Utility Counsel of the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs.
Georgia Power executives didn’t agree to the compromise, saying it won’t keep up with rising costs of coal and natural gas used in power generation, but Commissioner David Burgess made the motion to accept the compromise despite the objection.
“I think the stipulation does represent the interests of all the parties in this case,” said Mr. Burgess, one of two commissioners up for re-election this year.
There were essentially three plans on the table. The company’s plan lost support during the lengthy hearing process, which often sunk to debates on fluctuations of global energy prices.
A second proposal came from commission staff, which would have disallowed charging electricity customers for various expenses, dropping the total yearly increase by $280 million from what the company sought. That alternative would have added $4 to the average residential monthly bill for Georgia Power customers.
The PSC, however, rejected that staff proposal 2-3. Commissioners Bobby Baker and Angela Speir were outgunned by Commissioners Burgess, Doug Everett and Stan Wise, the chairman.
The third proposal was a compromise after the Georgia Industrial Group and the Georgia Textile Manufacturers Association objected to the amount their members would have to pay. The compromise, which all five commissioners voted for, trims $211 million from Georgia Power’s request, but it also means that Georgia Power residential customers will pay a 17 percent increase in fuel costs starting with their July bills.
Commissioner Bobby Baker tried to prevent customers from having to pay the expense of replacing electricity during six of 2,800 power outages that Georgia Power’s own review concluded were caused by errors committed by its workers. That would have saved customers the $5.2 million needed to buy replacement electricity from other utilities during the outages.
By the same 2-3 split, the commission voted down Mr. Baker’s motion.
Mr. Wise, who is also up for re-election, said looking at isolated outages was unfair to a company that generally saves customers money by operating more efficiently than the average electric company in the country.
“To point out one or two incidences would be inappropriate,” he said.
From the Friday, June 16, 2006 edition of the Augusta Chronicle
