Southern Co.

A divided Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) Thursday approved Georgia Power Co.’s plans to investigate a new nuclear power project in Stewart County, with a time frame around 2030. Approval came in a 4–1 vote, with Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald in opposition. The vote represented a bit of a compromise. The Atlanta-based Southern Co. subsidiary, […]

Southern Co.’s Kemper County energy facility—the only carbon capture and storage (CCS) integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant that is under construction—is producing syngas using lignite. The plant marked its most significant milestone to date on July 14, said Southern Co.’s Mississippi Power. It means that the first-of-its-kind technology to convert locally mined lignite […]

Georgia Power will shut down and stop receiving coal ash at all 29 of its coal ash ponds within the next three years. The announcement on June 13 is the latest in a string of similar moves from coal plant–owning utilities across the nation in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) coal ash disposal […]

The last of six gigantic modules in the nuclear island for Unit 3 at the Vogtle AP1000 reactors under construction near Augusta, Ga., have been placed. The CA02 and CA03 modules, weighing 52 tons and 237 tons respectively, are critical components and part of the In-Containment Refueling Water Storage Tank (IRWST), Georgia Power said on […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is conducting a formal investigation concerning costs and delays plaguing Mississippi Power’s Kemper integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant. Southern Co., Mississippi Power’s parent company, revealed the investigation in a recent 10-Q financial filing. The company said that while it is fully cooperating with the SEC, it believes the […]

Executives from power companies operating in different markets revealed how their firms are being affected by low natural gas prices, pressures to achieve fuel diversity, distributed energy generation, and lax demand growth, among a number of topics. The annual executive roundtable panel at the ELECTRIC POWER Conference and Exhibition on April 19 was moderated by […]

Mississippi Power’s lignite-fired Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant is seeing yet another delay and $110 million in new costs, a filing with state regulators shows. The company’s December 2015 monthly status report for the nation’s first commercial power plant that will capture and store carbon dioxide anticipates that it will now […]

Mississippi Power has revealed a new cost increase of $110 million for its Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) facility. But, the company said that it has tested one of two gasification units—reaching what it says is the project's "most significant milestone yet"—and that it does not expect any new delays. Testing the gasifiers […]

There has been a major shake up in the contractors involved in both of the new AP1000 nuclear power plant projects under construction in the U.S. Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC, a group company of Toshiba Corp., announced on Oct. 27 that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire CB&I Stone & Webster Inc., the nuclear […]

Southern Co. and AGL Resources—the largest natural gas–only distribution company in the U.S.—have agreed to merge in a deal that will make AGL Resources a wholly-owned subsidiary of the giant electric company. The transaction announced on Aug. 24 has an enterprise value of about $12 billion, including a total equity value of approximately $8 billion. […]

Mississippi Power must rebate $281 million in funds collected since 2013 for rate increases related to the lignite-fired power plant under construction in Kemper County, the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) ordered on Tuesday.  The state regulatory body also ordered the company and its parent company Southern Co. to stop collecting Kemper’s rate on customer […]

Cost estimates for the Kemper County Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle project (IGCC) have surged another $330 million since August, mostly owing to delays that have shifted the plant’s in-service date to the first half of 2016.  Plant owner Mississippi Power’s latest monthly report submitted to the Mississippi Public Service Commission shows that the project’s total […]

A major environmental settlement will force Southern Co. to repower, convert to natural gas, or shutter several coal units in Mississippi and Alabama. The landmark settlement with the Sierra Club that ends a six-year-long battle over Mississippi Power’s Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project will reshape the Southern Co. subsidiary’s generation fleet so […]

Speaking at the Energy Innovation Symposium in Washington D.C. on July 23, Southern Co. CEO Tom Fanning said that he would love “to announce another nuclear plant” later this year. But Fanning made it clear during his keynote address to attendees at the Bipartisan Policy Center’s American Energy Innovation Council–sponsored event that he favors an […]

With 4.4 million customers and nearly 46 GW of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Co. has doubled the size of its supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system in the past three years and