Case Study of Southern Company
Introduction
Southern Company is one of the largest generators of electricity in American, serving the Southeastern United States for more than 100 years with clean, safe, reliable and affordable electricity. Its four subsidiaries: Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Mississippi Power and Florida Power, provide retail electric service to 4.4 million customers. This holding company’s operations cover all phases of the electric utility business capacity, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications both in regulated and in competitive markets.
The generation sources of Southern Company include coal, gas, nuclear and hydro, among which coal-related generation takes 58% of the total generation amount. Bowen plant is one of the coal fired plant of Southern Company. It was completed in 1975 and was capable of producing enough power for the demand of 1 million people at Georgia. In order to generate a considerable electric capacity, massive tons of coals were carried in everyday, contributing to a sufficient inventory. Burning coals leaded to a great quantity of sulfur dioxide leaving this plant each hour.
The time of this case was in 1992, after the passing of amendment to the Clean Air Act, which addressed acid rain, ozone depletion and toxic air pollution. This amendment also established a national permit of sulfur dioxide emission, which was highly related to the operation of Bowen plant.
The impact of the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 on Bowen Plant
Admittedly, Southern Company didn't have the incentive to control its sulfur dioxide emissions until the acid rain provisions of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act.
This provision specified the quantity of sulfur dioxide’s emissions of each company by granting them allowance each year, based on the electricity amount they had generated in the past years. If the sulfur dioxide emission exceeded the allowance, companies were allowed to buy allowance from other companies who can reduce
Southern Company is one of the largest generators of electricity in American, serving the Southeastern United States for more than 100 years with clean, safe, reliable and affordable electricity. Its four subsidiaries: Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Mississippi Power and Florida Power, provide retail electric service to 4.4 million customers. This holding company’s operations cover all phases of the electric utility business capacity, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications both in regulated and in competitive markets.
The generation sources of Southern Company include coal, gas, nuclear and hydro, among which coal-related generation takes 58% of the total generation amount. Bowen plant is one of the coal fired plant of Southern Company. It was completed in 1975 and was capable of producing enough power for the demand of 1 million people at Georgia. In order to generate a considerable electric capacity, massive tons of coals were carried in everyday, contributing to a sufficient inventory. Burning coals leaded to a great quantity of sulfur dioxide leaving this plant each hour.
The time of this case was in 1992, after the passing of amendment to the Clean Air Act, which addressed acid rain, ozone depletion and toxic air pollution. This amendment also established a national permit of sulfur dioxide emission, which was highly related to the operation of Bowen plant.
The impact of the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 on Bowen Plant
Admittedly, Southern Company didn't have the incentive to control its sulfur dioxide emissions until the acid rain provisions of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act.
This provision specified the quantity of sulfur dioxide’s emissions of each company by granting them allowance each year, based on the electricity amount they had generated in the past years. If the sulfur dioxide emission exceeded the allowance, companies were allowed to buy allowance from other companies who can reduce