Plugged In

Georgia Power investing nearly $2.8 billion
in Georgia during 2009

Georgia Power is investing billions of dollars on construction projects all across the state to ensure that customers will continue to receive reliable electric service, and to decrease emissions from power plants.

For 2009, the company has a capital budget of almost $2.8 billion, which includes work at fossil fuel, hydro and nuclear plants, transmission and distribution upgrades, and environmental controls.

The company is in the midst of an overall $7 billion program to equip its coal-fueled power plants with the latest environmental controls to reduce emissions.

At Plant McDonough-Atkinson in Smyrna, what used to be a vacant field only a year ago is now a beehive of activity, with construction equipment and workers scurrying about and structures rising higher into the sky every day.

Three combined-cycle units are being built at McDonough-Atkinson, just part of a flurry of construction activity going on at Georgia Power generation plants across the state. Those units will operate primarily on natural gas.

Unit 4 is the farthest along. In less than a year, testing will begin on the unit, and it will begin commercial operation in February, 2011. Unit 5 is not far behind, and will begin commercial operation in June of 2011. Unit 6, which is being built closer to the existing plant, is in the early stages of construction and will be in operation in 2012.

The confines can get a little tight at McDonough-Atkinson, as it’s the only Georgia Power plant in the metropolitan Atlanta area. That means that, in addition to new construction, other important infrastructure is being moved around the site.

Eventually, a 20-mile-long natural gas pipeline that’s being built from Union City will deliver fuel to the new facility. The end result will be a dramatic decrease in emissions.

Plant McDonough-Atkinson is one of many Georgia Power construction sites around the state. The current environmental construction program will be completed in 2014-15.

Scrubbers, Selective Catalytic Reduction Systems (SCRS) and baghouses have been going up at other Georgia Power plant sites as part of the company’s environmental construction effort. The biggest projects have been at Plant Scherer, near Macon, which at its peak times had over 1,000 construction workers on site.

The scrubbers remove up to 95 percent of sulfur dioxide from the plant’s emissions. SCRS remove up to 85 percent of the nitrogen oxides, and baghouses collect fly ash and other particulate matter.

At Scherer, two of the four baghouses are in service. The other two will be in service by January of 2010. Four scrubbers and SCRs are also being built there. The first scrubber will go in service in January, 2011, and the final one will go in service in 2014.

At Plant Bowen, in Cartersville, three scrubbers are already in service, and the fourth one, on Unit 1, is scheduled for early next year. At Plant Wansley, in Heard County, a second scrubber was commissioned in the spring, and the restoration of the site from all the construction is nearly complete.

In addition to the environmental controls already in place or under construction, the company will add SCRs and scrubbers at plants Branch (in Milledgeville) and Yates (near Newnan) beginning in 2011 and coming fully online by 2014.

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