Southern Company filed an application with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a new operating license for its 18 MW Lloyd Shoals hydro project.
The dam impounds Lake Jackson on the Ocmulgee River in central Georgia. The project was built beginning in 1908, and all six turbine-generator units were commercially operating by 1917. Total annual generation at the project is estimated at 70,600 MWh.
The current operating license for the project expires Dec. 31, 2023. The project was relicensed in the early 1990s, and work was undertaken at that time to improve dissolved oxygen levels downstream.
Georgia Power, which operates the Lloyd Shoals project, says it is not proposing any new development at the project. The application says the project is considered to be mid-life cycle and “Granting a license to another party other than Georgia Power would deprive its investors and customers of end-of-life cycle benefits.” The company said it anticipated receiving a 40-year operating license and estimated the total project relicensing cost at just under $3.9 million.
Southern Company is a holding company based in Atlanta that owns three traditional electric operating companies, as well as Southern Power, Southern Company Gas, and other direct and indirect subsidiaries. Southern Company’s reportable segments are the sale of electricity by the traditional electric operating companies, the sale of electricity in the competitive wholesale market by Southern Power, and the sale of natural gas and other complementary products and services by Southern Company Gas. Southern Company’s subsidiaries provide electrical and gas services directly to about 8.63 million customers.
As of Dec. 31, 2020, subsidiary companies of Southern Company owned and/or operated 30 hydroelectric generating stations, 24 fossil fuel generating stations, three nuclear generating stations, 13 combined cycle/cogeneration stations, 44 solar facilities, 13 wind facilities, one fuel cell facility and one battery storage facility. These stations had a combined nameplate capacity of 42,548 MW.
The three traditional electric operating companies — Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power — operate generating plants serving 4.3 million retail customers in a 116,000 square-mile service territory comprising most of the states of Alabama and Georgia, together with southeastern Mississippi.
