ATLANTA, Aug. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Georgia Power announced today that Southern Nuclear has made significant progress on construction of Vogtle 3 & 4 since assuming project management on behalf of the project co-owners (Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities) from Westinghouse following its bankruptcy in 2017. The company also announced that its revised capital and construction cost forecast for its share of the project has increased from $7.3 billion to $8.4 billion, based on a revised cost-to-complete estimate from Southern Nuclear. The new nuclear units are the first to be built in the United States in a generation and the only new units currently under construction in this country. With projected in-service dates still expected in November 2021 (Unit 3) and November 2022 (Unit 4), the new units will generate enough emission-free electricity to power approximately 500,000 homes and businesses.

July 9 was our first meeting at the Energy Center, the new SCS/SNC offices at the Colonnade.  Our featured speaker was Brad Adams, Southern Nuclear Company’s Vice President of Engineering.  He spoke about “Leveraging Technology to Reduce Risk and Improve Reliability”, describing the nuclear industry’s plant digitalization technology initiatives.

Our Retiree Lifestyle Segment kicked off the meeting with a talk on the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) through the University of Alabama, by Glenn Morgan.

Here are some pictures from the meeting and tour of the new Southern Company offices.

July 9 is our first meeting at the Energy Center, the new SCS/SNC offices at the Colonnade.   Please note that the cafeteria will not be available this day so you may wish to eat lunch at Colonnade before our meeting. A group tour of the Energy Center will be available immediately after the program. Address is 3535 Colonnade Parkway, Birmingham AL 35242.  We are meeting in North Tower, 6^th floor, Room 600.  Click here for a map.

Our featured speaker will be Brad Adams, Southern Nuclear Company’s Vice President of Engineering and recognized Industry leader.  He will be speaking on “Leveraging Technology to Reduce Risk and Improve Reliability”, describing the nuclear industry’s plant digitalazation technology initiatives.

Digitalization encompasses a wide variety of remote sensors and monitoring/surveillance devices used to gather data, leveraging connectivity such as Wi-Fi inside the plant.  The “insights” gleaned from analyzing this data enable better operating/maintenance decisions which result in operating efficiencies that lower costs.

For example, Nuclear plant operators are shifting from time-based preventative maintenance towards a more condition-based approach inside the plant. These methods can enhance the performance of nuclear power plants and reduce costs by proactively optimizing performance, reducing outage durations, and hiking return-on-investment for assets.

Changes in nuclear regulations and improved cyber security defenses are needed to fully implement digitalization.  EPRI has risk-informed process pilots underway at Arizona’s Palo Verde and Duke’s Oconee nuclear plants.

Click here for more information on Brad Adams.

Our Retiree Lifestyle Segment kicking off the meeting is a talk on the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) through the University of Alabama, from Glenn Morgan. Glenn serves on the OLLI Advisory and Curriculum Committees and focuses on marketing the program.  OLLI offers mature adults an opportunity to take classes (non-academic credit) in a wide variety of subjects.  With courses taught in Greater Birmingham, Gadsden, Pickens County, as well as in Tuscaloosa, OLLI provides mature adults with opportunities to learn new things, make friends, travel and embrace life.  Courses are taught by volunteers who share their knowledge and passions.  Click here for more information on OLLI.

MEETING DETAILS:

When: Monday, July 9, 2018
Where: 3535 Colonnade Parkway, Birmingham, AL – North Tower, 6^th floor, Room 600
Board meeting: Noon
Lunch: Cafeteria is not available for this meeting.  Please eat before arriving for the meeting.
General Meeting: 1 p.m.

We hope to see you there!

Our May 2018 meeting was held at “The Club” and featured two great speakers. Retired Alabama Power Vice President Julia Segars opened the meeting with informal update on “Life After Southern”, speaking about her second career as an award-winning humor columnist and author of the book Aunt Sister.  She began the columns under the pen name “Aunt Sister” so as not to interfere with her corporate career. Julia’s husband Frank Segars, an SCS retiree, appears frequently in her columns and in the book as Aunt Sister’s husband “Fred”, along with other family members and an odd assortment of Southern folks, “bless their hearts”.  Julia grew up in Bluff Park, which is known as “The Mountain” in her book.   Keep up with her on her Aunt Sister Facebook page, or her website https://auntsister.com/

The excellent Executive Update was given by E&CS Vice President Paula Marino. She explained that consumer demand is changing, and The Southern Company is changing as well. Paula noted that the relationship between economic growth and electricity sales seems to be changing. Despite economic growth, commercial electricity sales remain weak. Energy efficiency and e-commerce may be causing a fundamental shift in the commercial class.

To combat this, Southern is working to find new revenue sources. We are focusing on technology development for the production, delivery and end-use of energy with projects such as APC’s Smart Neighborhood to demonstrate distributed energy resource (DER) use case optimizing cost, reliability, and environmental impact with a community-scale microgrid. The Reynolds Landing neighborhood demonstrates building-to-grid integration with real time utility to customer interaction.

Indoor agriculture is another promising area. Indoor agriculture saves water, reduces pesticides, makes use of vacant buildings, and provides access to fresh foods.

Collaboration with governments, utilities, universities, and technology developers such as EPRI and DOE is key, for projects such as National Carbon Collection Center and the Next-Gen Nuclear.   Electric vehicle use is increasing.

Defensive measures to cut costs include closing business offices, restructuring, optimizing workforce, retiring facilities, increasing efficiencies, outsourcing labor, standardizing work products.   Offensive measures include increasing bill pay options, expanding renewable portfolios, deploying distributed generation, adding service offerings, exploring new revenue streams.

Here are some additional pictures from the meeting: