Southern Company: The Story of a Prolific Pioneer in Energy Technology

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Atlanta-based energy giant Southern Co. it has evolved to keep up with the evolution of energy. As part of its growth, the company has been at the forefront of technologies that have reshaped various fields, adding those that are similar to coal, herbal and nuclear fuel.

The story of Southern Company, an Atlanta-based power giant that for seven decades powered an elaborate economic engine spanning three southeastern states, is known in a single point. It was in November 1911 when James Mitchell, a talented engineer and a famous developer. of wonderful projects, he saw Cherokee Bluffs, a hard-to-reach point on the Tallapoosa River in Alabama. Mitchell’s vision was grandiose: moving the remote site to a 40,000-acre lake and creating the world’s largest man-made reservoir, and continuing a series of dams and power plants on other Alabama rivers. “He envisioned a formula of strength and a regional network that could serve the force markets in the Southeast,” Dub Taft and Sam Heys wrote in their 2011 column Big Bets: Decisions and Leaders That Formed Southern Company. “Basically, James Mitchell dreamed of Southern Company. “

Mitchell’s dream temporarily became an initial holding company, Alabama Traction, Light

After a series of divestments that consolidated its monetary bases, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the formation of Southern Co. as the parent company of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power and Mississippi Power. economic boom and in the 1970s despite monetary turbulence (see box “A Long History of Innovation”).

Today, Southern Co. es an Atlanta-based corporate holding company that owns all the notable and non-unusual shares of 3 classic vertically incorporated and state-regulated electric companies: Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and Mississippi Power. Each operates app corporations that supply electric service to consumer retailers in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, and to wholesale consumers in the Southeast. The 3 utilities are part of North American Electric Reliability Corp. ‘s SERC reliability region. Southern Co. is also part of a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) proposing a Southeast Energy Exchange Market (SEEM). SEEM, which is expected to be online by mid-2022, is an extension of the existing regional bilateral market where components will use an automated energy exchange within the hour to buy and sell electric power. energy near the time when the energy is consumed, transmission of availability without reserves.

Beyond its application business, Southern Co. ‘s many branches. (Figure 1) include Southern Power, a major wholesale carrier with a total generation fleet of approximately 12. 4 GW. Another branch, Southern Nuclear, operates Southern Co. ‘s nuclear force 3. and lately he is managing the structure of the Plant Vogtle expansion. Southern Co. es owns Southern Company Gas, which is primarily an herbal fuel distributor, but also handles pipeline investments and fuel marketing facilities. Finally, Southern Co. also owns SCS, a formula facilities company; Southern Linc, a virtual wireless communications operator; Southern Holdings, an intermediary holding subsidiary that invests in projects; and PowerSecure, which develops resilience and distributed force responses and deploys microgrids for commercial, industrial, government, and application customers.

Together, those subsidiaries own or operate 43,202 MW, adding 30 hydroelectric power plants, 24 fossil fuel plants, 3 nuclear power plants (see box “A big bet on new nuclear power”), thirteen combined cycle/cogeneration plants, forty-five solar power plants, 15 wind installations, a mobile fuel facility, and 4 battery garage facilities. The company promotes the diversity of its portfolio. ” We are one of the U. S. utilities. “Developing and maintaining a diversified portfolio of forces is critical to effectively reducing emissions while maintaining reliability and affordability for our customers. “

Southern Co. ‘s perhaps widespread top challenge may only be to achieve a long-term purpose of reducing greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions to net-zero emissions by 2050, as announced in May 2020. The goal is a step forward from 2018 that the company would seek interim 50% relief in GHG emission grades from 2007 to 2030 for its fuel and electric power operations. The 2018 target, in particular, made Southern Co. one of the first U. S. utilities. aim to reduce carbon emissions.

“While environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have gained investors’ attention in recent years, at Southern Co. , those issues have gained the most attention they deserve,” said Tom Fanning, president and chief executive officer of Southern Co. reported in 2020. ” For us, focusing on ESG issues and their alignment with long-term strategy and price creation goes far beyond decarbonization. It’s about putting consumers at the center of everything we do, building a sustainable workforce, and making sure the communities we serve are better off because we’re there. “”This technique is ingrained in our pricing and DNA, and we know it’s the right way to drive long-term performance. “

In 2020, corporate executives said Southern Co. ‘s “high-level” path. towards network 0 (Figure 3) would be composed of several key elements. These come with an “orderly transition” away from their coal fleet. The company sees nuclear, hydroelectric and herbal fuel as “basic and flexible baseload” parts of an orderly transition. The company plans to expand its renewable strength and the deployment of force garages, upgrade its force grid and its force power programs.

However, their long-term combination can also be shaped through emerging technologies, which need the help of a “complementary policy set” to help accelerate studies and progression (R

The 2021 figures suggest that the company has made really broad progress. Compared to 2007, when it cites total GHG emissions (based on fair share) of 157 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, in 2021 it recorded 82 million metric tons, which are estimated to be 47% below the 2007 reference level. While this figure has “rebounded a bit” since 2020 due to rising herbal fuel prices, the company says it is on track to achieve 50% relief in GHG emissions by 2025 at the latest.

Environmental compliance, primarily federal effluent limitation guidelines, affects subsidiaries’ coal withdrawals. By 2028, the company plans to have reduced the number of sets in its coal fleet to eight, which is 4. 4 GW. This represents a relief of almost 80% in coal capacity until 2007, when the company owned 66 coal sets, a total capacity of 20. 4 GW (Figure 4).

In January 2022, Georgia Power proposed to withdraw and decertify 12 of its coal sets in Georgia, a total of 3. 5 GW, until 2028. This covers its entire coal fleet in Georgia, with the exception of Plant Bowen 3 and four sets, which plans to remain open until 2035, the timeline for the final plant possibly being decided through state regulators. Meanwhile, Alabama Power has tried to shut down or refuel Unit Five at the Barry plant and all E. C. assemblies. . Gaston.

But the end of a large number of iconic coal sets has been difficult, Fanning said at Southern Co’s annual shareholder meeting. On May 25, employees are defended, that communities are protected as productively as we can. Finding replacements for coal’s “economic engine” with innovations or potential innovations have been just as difficult, he said. A key query was “Can we redeploy?” Fanning said: “In theory, can you put solar panels everywhere?Could you put combined cycle fuel force in some way?Could you put nuclear force now? Not under my supervision, but probably in the 2030s some other resolution, and that resolution will be based on that kind of equation,” he said.

For now, the company is exploring the carbon-captured herbal fuel. “We want to do anything with the carbon that comes from those plants,” Fanning said. “And we’ll compare the economics of that relative to what we call the ‘fourth generation. ‘”of nuclear power,'” he said.

Beyond those sources, Southern Co. ‘s convenient maximum route. it consists of relying heavily on the expansion of the sun. “I’m very positive about the sun,” he said, wind resources and it has to rely on resources transmitted from the Great Plains, he said. However, a long-term incorporated with renewable energy will require long-distance transport or an economical energy garage. “However, let me be faithful to you,” he said. I think he wants to have innovations in the science of fabrics around the garage. With today’s lithium-ion batteries, I’d like to see something better in the long run and the extension of the garage needed for the kind of energy we’re going to provide,” he said. He said: “Remember, Southern Co. has about the length, a little smaller, of an energy production attitude than the Australian nation. If some of our energy comes from solar energy, we’d better have a lot of garage. “»

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