This is the second of several articles about Dalton Utilities and its numerous business sectors. This is the first of two articles in which Dalton Utilities president and CEO Don Cope will discuss the utility’s electrical business sector and review its overall electrical operations. The next article in this series will address the numerous initiatives and policy issues that have potential to impact this business sector.
Most of us flip on a light switch or turn on some labor-saving or entertainment device and never think about where the energy to illuminate the light or power the device comes from. In Dalton, we are extremely fortunate that we have concentrated industrial and large commercial electrical consumers. These consumers provide the economies of scale and high load factor electrical consumption (a combination of both time and percentage of maximum electricity utilized at a single meter site) that allows Dalton citizens and businesses to have electrical service rates that are envied across the nation.
Where does our electrical energy come from, and how does it get to Dalton? Dalton Utilities is co-owner of four power plants — Plant Vogtle Nuclear Plant near Waynesboro, Ga.; Plant Hatch Nuclear Plant near Baxley, Ga.; Plant Scherer Coal-Fired Plant in Juliette, Ga.; and Plant Wansley Coal-Fired Plant in Carrollton, Ga. Combined, these plants provide 120 megawatts (MW) of electrical energy, roughly 48 percent of our total electrical consumption.
Plant Vogtle is our most economically efficient source of energy, and Dalton Utilities is currently engaged with our other ownership partners in developing two new nuclear units at the Plant Vogtle site. We purchase an additional 41 MW of electricity from the Southeastern Power Administration whose source of power is hydroelectric and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This comprises 16 percent of our total power. The remaining 36 percent of our electrical energy is purchased through a Requirement Services Agreement (RSA) with Southern Wholesale Energy and Southern Power.
Dalton Utilities management is actively engaged in both the management of our owned generating assets and oversight/daily monitoring of the contracted supplies for energy. Our RSA allows us to purchase power from a wide range of generating assets in both the Georgia Power and Southern Company systems. In the next article, we will discuss in detail many issues associated with the regulation and operation of these generating assets and the potential impact these issues have on their cost.
As you can see from the varied locations of these energy sources, a large system of wires is necessary to bring the electrical energy from the source to our customers in Dalton. These wires operate at extremely high voltages and move energy from generating plants to substations throughout the state. Dalton Utilities is one of the owner-participants in the Georgia Integrated Transmission System (GA ITS). This system is unique in all of the United States in that each of the four owners (Georgia Power, Georgia Transmission Corp., the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities) each own discreet segments of these high-voltage wires. In fact, Dalton owns high-voltage transmission throughout Northwest Georgia.
Because of the agreements between the joint owners of the GA ITS, each participant is allowed to use the other participants’ discreetly-owned segments of lines. Therefore, Dalton Utilities can take electrical energy from our owned generating assets and transmit it to substations in Dalton without having the costly requirement of owning high-voltage wires all the way back to these plants.
When the energy arrives in Dalton, the voltage is reduced from the high-voltage necessary to move it across great distances to the safer, more readily-utilized lower voltage of our local distribution and service system. This voltage reduction takes place in transformers which are located in the various electrical substations constructed around our distribution system.
Our distribution system consists of the wires, service transformers, capacitors, switches and meters necessary to provide usable voltage to our end-use customers. This portion of the system is operated and maintained entirely by Dalton Utilities’ electrical department. We are very proud of the effectiveness and efficiency of this portion of our electrical operation. Over the last 12 years, we have made conscious investments in upgrading this system to make it extremely reliable and high quality. At the same time, we have also worked to ensure that our functions are extremely efficient.
The result? The portion of electrical cost directly attributable to local distribution, operations, meter reading and billing is less than one half of one cent per kilowatt hour.
The chart provided compares Dalton Utilities’ residential and industrial electrical rates to those of numerous other utilities in our region and around the country. Please review it and keep these rates in mind when you read the next article covering issues that have the potential to impact these electrical costs.
Don Cope is president and CEO of Dalton Utilities.
