By Tim Echols, member, Georgia Public Service Commission
HOSCHTON, Ga. | If ever there is a weekend when “fantasy” dominates, it was Labor Day weekend in Atlanta. Tens of thousands who play Fantasy Football, including me, were drafting their fantasy teams. It is estimated that almost 57 million people play across the nation. Another 70,000 people crammed into five downtown hotels to play another kind of fantasy, cosplay, or dress up as characters from movies, shows, comics and television, at the annual Dragon Con event, which I also attended with my daughter. To my surprise, I learned a little about the energy world through both experiences.
Echols
My day job is being an elected energy regulator here in Georgia, along with four colleagues. We are elected statewide across Georgia to regulate monopolies, set rates, do grid planning, and make sure that our state has the utility infrastructure it needs for decades to come.
Let’s start with “Energy Fantasy.” There are those who feel like we can run this state on solar and wind and close all fossil plants. As much as I love green energy, that is fantasy. I have solar on my house, but its superpowers are limited. Baseload power plants, like the new Vogtle nuclear unit, are critical to a connected future. These plants are there, 24/7, working for you, with men and women wearing hard hats instead of capes. And we are going to need more baseload plants if people keep coming to our state.
“Energy Reality” in Georgia meant doing something no other state was willing to do—building a new nuclear plant. The two new units at Plant Vogtle power one million homes and businesses and allow us to keep the economic development door open. Believe it or not, other states are having to say “no” to large energy loads, and as a result, Georgia is getting some of those.
There are plenty of states in America where supplying a car factory with energy is pure fantasy, and something they can only do in the distant future. Georgia, however, was ready and the result is billions of dollars flowing into our state.
Yet even with this growth, Georgia has been slowly making great progress at cleaning our environment, adding carbon-free resources, all the while keeping our rates below the national average. That combination is real and has played a role in attracting new businesses to our state and making our state affordable.
The “slow and steady” approach of my colleagues has put Georgia in a good place: fourth in the Nation in Solar, the ONLY state to build new nuclear in three decades, a leader in electric vehicle rate design, and electric capacity for growth when other states are saying no. But we also have had the backing of the Legislature, our Governor, the Chamber, and you, our fellow citizens. The Electric Membership Cooperatives (EMCs), the Municipal Utilities (MEAG) and even our home-grown solar developers are working together to make the systems work smarter and more efficiently. They deserve credit too.
On hot afternoons, California mayors in Los Angeles and San Francisco beg people to conserve power, postpone laundry and delay charging their cars. That is a reality we don’t have in Georgia. Our grid has a 26 percent reserve margin, and your electric rates allow us to replace aging equipment and build new lines
Lest we get too confident, we must always be open to new technologies, new paradigms, and great ideas. Georgia is a great place to live, and our doors are open.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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