Georgia Power Opposes Bill It Says Would Introduce Deregulation to Georgia

Georgia Power has opposed a bill before the Georgia legislature which it said amounts to deregulation.

The bill, SB 401, would revise the definition of customer generator to permit the leasing of distributed generation, in addition to ownership, expanding the capacity eligible as distributed generation.

Under SB 401, "customer generator" would mean, "a customer who utilizes the electrical energy from a distributed generation facility, whether the customer finances the distributed generation facility by purchase, lease, loan, or other form of financing, including a power purchase agreement."

The bill would also revise the definition of distributed generation facility to mean a facility provided by or for a customer generator for the production of electrical energy that:

- Uses a solar photovoltaic system; fuel cell; generator fueled by biomass, municipal solid waste, landfill gas, hydropower; or wind turbine

- Is located on the customer's premises;

- Operates in parallel with the electric service provider's distribution facilities;

- Is connected to the electric service provider's distribution system on either side of the electric service provider's meter; and

- Is intended primarily to offset part or all of the customer generator's requirements for electricity

The bill would also eliminate the current cap on the size of a customer generator of 10 kW for residential customers and 100 kW for commercial customers.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the bill is opposed by Georgia Power, who said that the bill would introduce a new class of electric suppliers to the state.

As quoted by the AJC, Kyle Leach, director of resource policy and planning at Georgia Power, told a Senate committee that:

"That is where we have great concerns about this legislation. Because it introduces a whole new class of electricity suppliers into this state. Basically, it's deregulation ... As far as we can tell, these new suppliers are not bound by the Public Service Commission. There's no oversight. They're not bound by an EMC [electric membership cooperative] board of directors or municipal city council or elected officials."