Oglethorpe Power Corporation is an American medium-sized

electric utility An electric utility, or a power company, is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. Electric utilities are ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Formed in 1974, Oglethorpe is a

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

owned by the 38 electric membership corporations that it serves. The utility's headquarters are in Tucker, Georgia.

History

In 1935, the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) provided loans for building transmission lines in rural areas, and EMCs were created in Georgia to purchase power from various sources. In 1974, 39 Georgia-based EMCs incorporated Oglethorpe Power Corporation to invest in generating capacities and transmission lines. In 1996, Oglethorpe Power signed a 15-year, $4–5 billion deal with LG&E to receive half of its electricity needs from the Kentucky-based power supplier, with a locked down price on the coal-fired megawatt that LG&E must maintain. In 1997, Ogelthorpe restructured into three separate, but interrelated, cooperatives. Oglethorpe Power Corporation handles

electricity generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For electric utility, utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its Electricity delivery, delivery (Electric power transm ...

, Georgia Transmission Corporation owns and operates the transmission lines and substations and Georgia System Operations Corporation provides system and administrative support. In September 2008, Oglethorpe Power announced the construction of a massive woody biomass power plant (two 100-megawatt-per-year, carbon-neutral facilities) to power nearly half of Georgia's population. In 2017, the turmoil surrounding the failed deliveries of nuclear reactors by bankrupted Westinghouse put Oglethorpe Power at the forefront of the country's nuclear crisis.

Activity

Oglethorpe Power is the largest power supply cooperative in the

based upon assets and annual

kilowatt-hour A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a comm ...

sales. The utility's service area covers 65 percent of the state of Georgia. Ogelthorpe co-owns several of its plants with Georgia Power (largest electricity supplier in the state) and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia. Oglethorpe's power plants has an annual revenue of $1 billion and assets of over $7 billion, and 4.1 million customers (2011). About 24% of the capacity is

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

, 47%

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

, 19% nuclear and 10%

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

power (2009). Oglethorpe Power owns 817 megawatts of the 1,095-megawatt Rocky Mountain Hydroelectric Plant, a pure pumped-storage hydroelectric plant that stores

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

during periods of low

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

demand and produces electricity during periods of high demand. The utility's nuclear power comes from its partial ownership of the Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Generating Station and the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant. It has partial ownership of two coal plants and full ownership of 3 combined cycle power plants and several

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

power plants. Oglethorpe is a 30% partner in the project to build two new AP1000 nuclear reactors at Vogtle, and has $3 billion of Department of Energy loan guarantees for the project. In 2018 it sought more loan guarantees to cover cost overruns on the project. Lead partner Georgia Power agreed to pay an additional proportion of any project completion costs beyond $9.2 billion.

Governance

There is a board of directors that has directors and managers from EMCs (Electric Membership Cooperative) and an independent director. There is also the Leadership, which has a President, a vice president, Senior Vice Presidents, and Executive Vice Presidents.

Leadership

Board of directors

{, class="wikitable" , - , Marshall S. Millwood{{cite web , title=Board of Directors - About Our Company , url=https://opc.com/about/our-company/ , website=Oglethorpe Power , access-date=27 September 2022 , , Chairman, Sawnee EMC , - , James I. White , , Vice Chairman, Snapping Shoals EMC , - , George L. Weaver , , Central Georgia EMC , - , Randy Crenshaw , , Irwin EMC, Middle Georgia EMC , - , Fred A. McWhorter , , Rayle EMC , - , Ernest A. “Chip” Jakins III , , Jackson EMC , - , Jeffrey W. Murphy , , Hart EMC , - , Sam Simonton , , Walton EMC , - , Danny Nichols , , Colquitt EMC , - , Horace H. Weathersby III, , Planters EMC , - , Jimmy G. Bailey , , Diverse Power , - , Wm. Ronald Duffey , , Outside Director

References

Energy Information Administration

External links

Oglethorpe Power Corporation
* Electric generation and transmission cooperatives in the United States Electric cooperatives in Georgia (U.S. state) Companies based in Tucker, Georgia Energy companies established in 1974 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1974 Energy in Georgia (U.S. state) Cooperatives based in Georgia (U.S. state)