JEA has asked federal energy regulators to intervene in its dispute with a Georgia electric agency over a controversial agreement that obligates Jacksonville ratepayers to help build two nuclear reactors in that state that are years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.
It’s not clear if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will agree to hear JEA’s case. The federal agency regulates the sale and transmission of electricity across state lines and reviews some corporate transactions and activities. But it does not oversee the construction of power plants or the operation of nuclear facilities, nor does it regulate municipal power agencies like JEA and the Georgia agency it’s feuding with.
Alan Howard, the chairman of the JEA board of directors, told his counterpart at the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia in a Tuesday letter that a hearing by the regulatory commission would place the burden on MEAG to prove its purchase-power agreement with JEA has reasonable terms and conditions.
“We do not believe MEAG can meet this burden,” Howard wrote.
The MEAG board is set to vote Sept. 20 on whether to proceed with the Plant Vogtle expansion project, a $27 billion effort. JEA wants MEAG to vote to discontinue the project because it believes it could save more than $1 billion.
The JEA board signed a commitment in 2008 to help the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia build the two nuclear reactors and to buy power from them for 20 years. That contract locks JEA into paying debt-service on the project whether the reactors are ever built or not. It’s estimated to cost JEA well in excess of $2 billion.
Howard said JEA has secured a term sheet for replacement power that would be cheaper than the price of any electricity that would come from the two under-construction nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. Those tentative agreements — which would cover JEA and MEAG’s future electric needs — could save the utilities about $2.5 billion if the MEAG board voted no and opted instead for the cheaper electricity, Howard wrote.
“The choices made this week will endure long past our own lifetimes,” Howard wrote. “These are choices with which our children and our grandchildren will have to live. Choose affordability; vote no.”
