Holy cow - just reviewed a commercial client's August bill from Georgia Power and their fuel cost recovery is showing 23.1 cents per kWh. That's nearly doubling their energy charges. I've been doing this for eight years and never seen fuel adjustment this high. Schedule F-7 tariff shows the calculation but something smells fishy. The coal and natural gas markets haven't moved that dramatically. Anyone else seeing this in Georgia or other Southern Company territories?
Georgia Power fuel clause hitting 23 cents/kWh - is this legal?
Rachel, I'm in Birmingham and Alabama Power (also Southern Company) is showing similar spikes. Our industrial clients are going ballistic. The thing is, when you dig into the fuel clause filings with the PSC, there's a lot of "purchased power" costs that seem inflated. My theory is they're buying expensive peak power from affiliates and passing the costs through the fuel clause instead of eating the capacity planning failures.
This is why I prefer Duke Energy territory - at least their fuel riders are more predictable. But 23 cents is insane. Rachel, have you checked if Georgia Power is including any non-fuel costs in that calculation? Sometimes they sneak in transmission expenses or environmental compliance costs. The Georgia PSC has been pretty utility-friendly lately, but even they should balk at numbers like that.
I've been tracking Southern Company fuel clauses for years from Alabama. Val's absolutely right about the purchased power issue. They've been doing "economy purchases" from other utilities at premium rates, then socializing the costs across all customers through fuel adjustment. It's legal under current tariffs, but it's a loophole you could drive a truck through.
Albert, that explains a lot. I found references to "short-term power purchases" buried in the monthly fuel filings but couldn't figure out the pricing methodology. Derek, you're right about checking for non-fuel costs - I found some storm restoration expenses that definitely don't belong in fuel recovery. Filing a formal complaint tomorrow. This is going to cost my client about $8,000 extra this quarter if it stands.
Keep us posted Rachel. If you get traction with the Georgia PSC, I've got three Alabama clients who would benefit from similar challenges. These Southern Company fuel clauses are like black boxes - tons of moving parts and very little transparency. The regulators need to start demanding better documentation of these "emergency purchases" and affiliate transactions.