I know that in the last 20 years the power companies have had to spend enormous amounts of money on air pollution control systems. Those systems have doubled, tripled and quadrupled the size of most existing power plants. None of those pollution control systems have increased power production. In fact they take power in the form of station service from each plants production. All of those systems cost billions of dollars to design and build. Once they are built they cost millions to operate and maintain.
I know this because I designed them, built them and maintained them.
Go look at an ariel photo past and present of a plant like Plant Bowen over between Rome and Cartersville, Georgia. You will see a plant that has at least tripled in size, and none of those building projects has increased power production, all of them have reduced power production. It is astonishing the hoops that the government that we elected has put the power companies through.
Combine that with increased cost of fuel and those reasons are why energy prices have risen over the years.
Southern Company just recently finished building the first new nuclear reactors since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. All the engineers that designed nuclear power plants had long since retired or died, so the power company had to basically start from scratch. Not only that but the government regulations on building something like that were astronomical. Due to those handicaps, there were tons of delays and cost overruns. They were basically build something that no one working on the project had ever done before.
All that said, I'm not here to defend the power company. I spent my career, designing, building, inspecting and maintaining power plants. What I'm doing is simply telling the facts of the story that no one but people who have worked in the industry understand.
I understand that none of that will make anyone feel any better about their power bill doubling.
How much has the price of groceries or a new truck gone up in the last 20 years and why have those costs gone up?
