The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is calling for the closure of Georgia Power’s Plant Hammond west of Rome, citing a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

A spokesman for the utility said Georgia Power is aware of the report but has no plans to shut down the 61-year-old plant.

The IEEFA report claims the cost for electricity generated at Plant Hammond increased from $56.83 per megawatt hour in 2010 to $94.18 per megawatt hour in 2014.

John O’Brien, a communications officer for Georgia Power, said the company does not divulge specific operating costs.

The utility makes every effort to dispatch all of its generation units “in the most cost effective way for customers,” he said.

The IEEFA report also alleges that the amount of power produced at Plant Hammond has declined significantly since 2007.

A graph from the Energy Information Administration included in the report indicates the four units at Plant Hammond produced more than 4.7 million megawatt hours of power in 2007 but that figure had dropped to a little more than a million megawatt hours in 2014.

O’Brien said fuel, operating costs and a host of other factors play a role in the rise and fall of power generation figures.

O’Brien said that comparing certain plants to other plants across the Georgia Power network is not always an apples-to-apples comparison. For example, generation at coal, natural gas or nuclear plants is essentially available on-demand while power from renewable sources like wind or solar power is intermittent and not always available. The IEEFA report also alleges that the cost of generating power at Plant Hammond is expected to increase in the future, “as a result of costly upgrades to add cooling towers and effluent treatment controls.”

Georgia Power indicated the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has not requested the installation of cooling towers at Plant Hammond.

The Coosa River was included in the Georgia Dirty Dozen report issued by the Georgia Water Coalition because of the super-heated water discharged back into the river from Plant Ham­mond.

From a local perspective, closing Plant Hammond would impact 190 employees. Floyd County Tax Commissioner Kevin Payne also estimated the closure could cost the county about $5 million in tax revenue.

 (Rome News-Tribune)