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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Southern Company (NYSE:SO) (Atlanta, Georgia) continues to pursue renewable-energy projects and decarbonization goals, but executives acknowledge some of its major fossil-fuel facilities will have to stay open longer than expected amid the recent crunch in the energy markets. But that isn't slowing Southern's adoption of hydropower, or its vow to eliminate carbon emissions in the coming decades, executives say. Industrial Info is tracking more than $42.5 billion worth of active projects from Southern Company.
In regards to Southern's long-delayed additions of units 3 and 4 at the Alvin W. Vogtle Nuclear Power Station in Waynesboro, Georgia, "the projected completion timeline and capital cost forecast for both units are unchanged from the updates that we provided last quarter," said Tom Fanning, the chief executive officer of Southern, in a recent quarterly earnings-related conference call. "Since that time, we've seen sustained progress consistent with our expectations for each unit."
Earlier this year, an independently published report hiked the Vogtle's estimated price tag to between $32 billion and $34 billion, and hinted at possible legal problems facing Southern subsidiary Georgia Power. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can read more details in Industrial Info's project report and January 27, 2022, article - New Estimate for Vogtle Unit Additions: $32 Billion to $34 Billion.
Click on the image at right for a graph detailing Southern Company's active projects by fuel type, excluding nuclear.
Southern's official five-year budget assumes $41 billion in capital spending, but Fanning acknowledged the company "typically understates" such projections, "because we don't account for anything in our budget that we don't know about." He said his own outlook "could easily see something like $45 billion."
Nuclear aside, hydropower accounts for the largest share of spending for active and planned Southern projects, according to Industrial Info's project database. In March, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted Southern subsidiary Alabama Power a preliminary permit to study its proposed Chandler Mountain Pumped Storage Plant near Steele, Alabama, which is designed to generate 1,600 megawatts (MW). If approved, the project would include an upper reservoir on Chandler Mountain with an underground powerhouse and four dam sections. Subscribers can learn more from Industrial Info's project report.
Southern already is preparing for turbine modernization projects at the Bartletts Ferry Hydropower Station in Salem, Alabama, and the Tugalo Hydro Power Station in Tallulah Falls, Georgia, both of which would substantially extend the facilities' service lives. Subscribers can learn more from Industrial Info's detailed reports on the Bartletts Ferry and Tugalo projects.
Southern is pursuing net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and aims to eliminate half of all its greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, relative to 2007 levels. Fanning said the company's natural gas business "fits in well with the decarbonization," and that "the idea somehow that gas should go away in America is really foolish. Don't undersell the capability of American technology innovation in solving the problem of the future."
Fanning called on the U.S. Department of Energy to join Southern and other companies in financing "more important net-zero technologies, whether that's storage, whether that is carbon removal, whether it's new nuclear, you name it." Southern is considering a proposed battery energy-storage system (BESS) in Canton, Georgia, a 265-MW, lithium-ion unit that would interconnect with its McGrau Ford Substation. The project remains in its earliest planning phase, where plenty of factors could delay or alter the projected investment. Subscribers can learn more in Industrial Info's project report.
Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Southern, is in the middle of an $850 million gas-fired unit addition at its James M. Barry Power Station in Bucks, Alabama, which is north of Mobile. The 726-MW natural gas-fired, combined-cycle Unit 8 is expected to finish construction toward the end of 2023. Subscribers can learn more from Industrial Info's project report.
Earlier this year, Alabama Power agreed to pay $75,000 in fines and to stop burning coal in a unit at the Barry plant that released too much hydrochloric acid, according to a CBS television affiliate in Alabama. The state's Department of Environmental Management said Alabama Power must stop burning coal at the facility's Unit 4 by 2028, although the Southern subsidiary already had announced plans to convert the unit to burn natural gas.
Dan Tucker, the chief financial officer of Southern, acknowledged in the call that the company was not switching away from coal as quickly as some investors and customers had hoped: "We are being a little conservative in terms of looking toward our peak season in the summer, in our electric business, and just making sure that we're holding on to enough coal there." He also said tie-ups in transportation were a major factor: "With the lack of available personnel and other things, rails are having to reprioritize their own train sets and personnel--and frankly, coal is not at the top of their list right now."
Fanning noted Alabama Power's James H. Miller Power Station in Quinton, Alabama, which has Southern's flagship coal units, is "the cheapest, best-controlled [coal-fired] plant--it has plenty of coal for the summer." The Miller station already is undergoing a years-long dewatering and closure of a coal ash pond, totaling 321 acres, to comply with rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Subscribers can learn more in Industrial Info's project report.
"I just want to make sure people hear loud and clear: In no way does this negatively impact our long-term objective of achieving net-zero by 2050," Fanning said in the conference call. "You have to understand that long-term strategy should be robust and be able to manage the exogenous factors that change our plan day-to-day. Mike Tyson once said, 'You have a plan until you get hit in the face,' and then what happens? Certainly, the tactics will vary depending upon what's happening in the worldwide energy market. But our long-term strategy remains intact."
Southern had hoped to begin construction on 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar-energy projects by the end of 2023, but announced last week it would delay those plans by at least a year amid global supply chain disruptions and the threat of new tariffs on panel imports from Asia, according to Reuters.
In addition to the abovementioned capital-spending projects, Industrial Info is tracking more than $442 million in maintenance-related projects from Southern Company. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project Database can click here for a list.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the world's leading provider of market intelligence across the upstream, midstream and downstream energy markets and all other major industrial markets. IIR's Global Market Intelligence Platform (GMI) supports our end-users across their core businesses, and helps them connect trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated project opportunities. Follow IIR on: LinkedIn.
In regards to Southern's long-delayed additions of units 3 and 4 at the Alvin W. Vogtle Nuclear Power Station in Waynesboro, Georgia, "the projected completion timeline and capital cost forecast for both units are unchanged from the updates that we provided last quarter," said Tom Fanning, the chief executive officer of Southern, in a recent quarterly earnings-related conference call. "Since that time, we've seen sustained progress consistent with our expectations for each unit."
Earlier this year, an independently published report hiked the Vogtle's estimated price tag to between $32 billion and $34 billion, and hinted at possible legal problems facing Southern subsidiary Georgia Power. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can read more details in Industrial Info's project report and January 27, 2022, article - New Estimate for Vogtle Unit Additions: $32 Billion to $34 Billion.
Click on the image at right for a graph detailing Southern Company's active projects by fuel type, excluding nuclear.Southern's official five-year budget assumes $41 billion in capital spending, but Fanning acknowledged the company "typically understates" such projections, "because we don't account for anything in our budget that we don't know about." He said his own outlook "could easily see something like $45 billion."
Nuclear aside, hydropower accounts for the largest share of spending for active and planned Southern projects, according to Industrial Info's project database. In March, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted Southern subsidiary Alabama Power a preliminary permit to study its proposed Chandler Mountain Pumped Storage Plant near Steele, Alabama, which is designed to generate 1,600 megawatts (MW). If approved, the project would include an upper reservoir on Chandler Mountain with an underground powerhouse and four dam sections. Subscribers can learn more from Industrial Info's project report.
Southern already is preparing for turbine modernization projects at the Bartletts Ferry Hydropower Station in Salem, Alabama, and the Tugalo Hydro Power Station in Tallulah Falls, Georgia, both of which would substantially extend the facilities' service lives. Subscribers can learn more from Industrial Info's detailed reports on the Bartletts Ferry and Tugalo projects.
Southern is pursuing net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and aims to eliminate half of all its greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, relative to 2007 levels. Fanning said the company's natural gas business "fits in well with the decarbonization," and that "the idea somehow that gas should go away in America is really foolish. Don't undersell the capability of American technology innovation in solving the problem of the future."
Fanning called on the U.S. Department of Energy to join Southern and other companies in financing "more important net-zero technologies, whether that's storage, whether that is carbon removal, whether it's new nuclear, you name it." Southern is considering a proposed battery energy-storage system (BESS) in Canton, Georgia, a 265-MW, lithium-ion unit that would interconnect with its McGrau Ford Substation. The project remains in its earliest planning phase, where plenty of factors could delay or alter the projected investment. Subscribers can learn more in Industrial Info's project report.
Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Southern, is in the middle of an $850 million gas-fired unit addition at its James M. Barry Power Station in Bucks, Alabama, which is north of Mobile. The 726-MW natural gas-fired, combined-cycle Unit 8 is expected to finish construction toward the end of 2023. Subscribers can learn more from Industrial Info's project report.
Earlier this year, Alabama Power agreed to pay $75,000 in fines and to stop burning coal in a unit at the Barry plant that released too much hydrochloric acid, according to a CBS television affiliate in Alabama. The state's Department of Environmental Management said Alabama Power must stop burning coal at the facility's Unit 4 by 2028, although the Southern subsidiary already had announced plans to convert the unit to burn natural gas.
Dan Tucker, the chief financial officer of Southern, acknowledged in the call that the company was not switching away from coal as quickly as some investors and customers had hoped: "We are being a little conservative in terms of looking toward our peak season in the summer, in our electric business, and just making sure that we're holding on to enough coal there." He also said tie-ups in transportation were a major factor: "With the lack of available personnel and other things, rails are having to reprioritize their own train sets and personnel--and frankly, coal is not at the top of their list right now."
Fanning noted Alabama Power's James H. Miller Power Station in Quinton, Alabama, which has Southern's flagship coal units, is "the cheapest, best-controlled [coal-fired] plant--it has plenty of coal for the summer." The Miller station already is undergoing a years-long dewatering and closure of a coal ash pond, totaling 321 acres, to comply with rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Subscribers can learn more in Industrial Info's project report.
"I just want to make sure people hear loud and clear: In no way does this negatively impact our long-term objective of achieving net-zero by 2050," Fanning said in the conference call. "You have to understand that long-term strategy should be robust and be able to manage the exogenous factors that change our plan day-to-day. Mike Tyson once said, 'You have a plan until you get hit in the face,' and then what happens? Certainly, the tactics will vary depending upon what's happening in the worldwide energy market. But our long-term strategy remains intact."
Southern had hoped to begin construction on 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar-energy projects by the end of 2023, but announced last week it would delay those plans by at least a year amid global supply chain disruptions and the threat of new tariffs on panel imports from Asia, according to Reuters.
In addition to the abovementioned capital-spending projects, Industrial Info is tracking more than $442 million in maintenance-related projects from Southern Company. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project Database can click here for a list.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the world's leading provider of market intelligence across the upstream, midstream and downstream energy markets and all other major industrial markets. IIR's Global Market Intelligence Platform (GMI) supports our end-users across their core businesses, and helps them connect trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated project opportunities. Follow IIR on: LinkedIn.
