Georgia Power wins ruling on research study

Georgia Power wins ruling on research study

By MARGARET NEWKIRK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/18/04

Georgia Power and Savannah Electric will not have to pay for new research into energy-efficiency programs, the state Public Service Commission ruled Tuesday.

The commission unanimously rejected environmentalists' request for that funding Tuesday, saying it did not have the legal authority to demand it.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, or SACE, had called the money essential for a commission-ordered task force, which has until February to come up with new energy-efficiency proposals.

Without the funding, SACE said, the task force will be "something of a farce" and the commission's commitment to energy efficiency "lip service."

The organization said about $100,000 would be needed to pay for research to counter that already done by the state's utilities, which strongly oppose new efficiency programs.

The PSC ordered up the task force this summer, after rejecting environmental groups' push to get energy-efficiency programming included in the long-term energy supply plans of Georgia Power and Savannah Electric.

In 1995, the PSC set guidelines, at Georgia Power's request, that said the utilities should not launch efficiency programs if those programs would put upward pressure on rates.

Each time that test was applied by the utilities, no energy-efficiency programs passed.

But critics said that is because of a flaw in how the test measures upward rate pressure.

The PSC rejected environmentalists' bid to scrap that test and put a program in place anyway.

The task force was the olive branch.

Side up of environmentalists and the utilities themselves, the group has been asked to examine the screening process, as well as potential programs for rewarding energy customers who cut back on their power use.

As Tuesday's vote highlighted, the group's start has been inauspicious.

Before the task force's first meeting, the group's dueling members were already battling over the funding issue.

In a statement before Tuesday's vote, the Southern Alliance also obliquely criticized PSC staff, saying neither the extra money nor the task force would have been necessary if the staff and consultants had done an adequate job during the long-term planning case.

Tuesday's unanimous vote was notable: Even the three commissioners most sympathetic to SACE's efforts — Robert Baker, David Burgess and Angela Speir — voted against the proposal.

Speir introduced her vote by saying that the commission did not have the authority to earmark a new assessment on utilities for the task force's use.

Speir urged the two utilities to "participate in any and every way" with the effort to come up with new energy-efficiency proposals by early next year. But "I cannot support SACE's request," she said.