We work extremely hard to put together a program of meetings and activities that make the MEAG Power Annual Meeting a worthwhile event for our Participants. It is a unique once-a-year opportunity to gather a broad spectrum of Participant elected officials and staff to discuss in-depth the most important areas of our business and the industry, of legislation and the political policy environment that could affect our Participant communities, of industry changes, trends and challenges – and of strategies for meeting them.

There was no shortage of important topics to discuss this year. The world seems to be in a state of flux. From the dramatic increases from historically low natural gas prices to the recent volatility in cryptocurrency markets to supply chain issues and related shortages, to the continued rise of the solar and EV industries and of electrification, in general – today’s economy and the markets in which we operate are more challenging than ever.

Our program focused on many of these important issues. Garrett Fitzgerald, Ph.D., senior director, electrification, at the Smart Electric Power Alliance, presented on electrification and EV integration into the industry and economy. Geoff Bennett, PBS Newshour chief Washington correspondent and weekend anchor, delivered an in-depth briefing on important political news and the federal legislative landscape.

Steve Wright, the retired general manager of the Chelan Public Utility District & former CEO of the Bonneville Power Administration, joined MEAG Power Chief Operating Officer Steve Jackson and General Counsel Pete Degnan on a panel to discuss the fluid load dynamics at play in the volatile cryptocurrency industry.

And Michele Jackson, director of Power Generation, joined The Energy Authority’s Michael Gehring, portfolio manager, east, and Mark Anderson, client services manager, on a panel dissecting the power supply challenges at hand in wholesale energy and solar markets related to the current economic, supply and supply chain issues.

MEAG Power President & CEO Jim Fuller opened the general session with his annual business review, highlighting MEAG Power’s successes and challenges over the 12 months since the last annual meeting. Jim also introduced our new Chief Financial Officer Reiko Kerr (click to view press release).

Jim and Steve Jackson later introduced this year’s President’s Award winners, Ben Boucher, manager of bulk transmission planning services, and Lisa Meeks, principal accountant — recognized for their service and dedication to MEAG Power and our Participant communities.

Much of the work of MEAG Power’s Government Affairs staff takes place behind the scenes, from tracking potential and active legislation year-round at both the federal and state level to maintaining regular consultative contact with legislative staff to updating senior management and the Board.

During a busy, productive summer, Government Affairs and allied staff cultivated important relationship-building outreach from D.C. to Plant Vogtle to several Participant cities. The MEAG Power Board’s Government Affairs Committee met with several members of the Georgia Congressional delegation and their staffs in Washington, D.C. Government and Corporate Affairs staff participated in the annual ECG/MEAG Power Economic Development Bus Tour, and also a Congressional Staffers Tour at Plant Vogtle.

Georgia Congressional Delegation Visit

The Board’s Government Affairs Committee meets with the Georgia delegation each year to discuss energy industry policy. This year’s trip included Board Chairman Steve “Thunder” Tumlin, Mayor of Marietta, Mayor Keith Brady of Newnan, State Rep. Bill Yearta of Sylvester, MEAG Power President & CEO Jim Fuller, VP and Chief Administrative Officer Doug Lego and Director of Government Affairs Paul Warfel.

The MEAG Power group met with a number of legislators during the Congressional visit, including: Senator Warnock and Representatives Allen, Carter, Clyde, Ferguson, Greene, Hice, Johnson, Austin Scott, and David Scott, along with staff members in other Georgia delegation offices.

They were on Capitol Hill when it was announced that the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would likely become law. It was passed by both houses of Congress the following week and signed into law by President Biden on Aug. 16. The law has significant provisions that are favorable to electric utilities and public power; it’s the perfect example of why such ongoing outreach at all levels of government is important. (See the article in this issue for details on the energy-related provisions of the new law.)

ECG/MEAG Power Economic Development Bus Tour

The annual Economic Development Bus Tour, an annual event co-sponsored by MEAG Power and ECG, rolled through eight Participant cities over two days in early August. In addition to staff from both MEAG Power and ECG, the tour included representatives from the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

The group visited with heads of economic development, mayors, city managers, other officials and business leaders in each community, learning about development and growth initiatives, successes, major industries and business and, of course, economic development plans and opportunities. The tour is a unique way to see the drivers of growth, hear the personal stories and plant the seeds for future development in Participant communities. Additionally, it creates a productive venue to build strong relationships with these government officials and business leaders.

Highlights of this year’s tour included such diverse scenes as spec building tours, cryptocurrency mining operations, erosion-control materials fabrication, industrial tent-making operations and a massive electric vehicle battery plant.

Congressional Staff Plant Vogtle Tour

The annual tour of Plant Vogtle allows staff members from Georgia’s U.S. representatives and senators, important influencers and policy advisors, the chance to see the scope and scale of the construction effort — and to get a unique understanding of the plant’s importance to Georgia as the state’s largest provider of non-emitting baseload power for the next 60-80 years.

The timing of the tour was fortuitous: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission had just issued its finding that allows Unit 3 to load fuel and progress through its startup sequence toward commercial operation by March 31, 2023. More information on this important milestone can be found in the Vogtle News article in this issue.

In addition to seeing the ongoing work on Unit 4, slated for commercial operation by year-end 2023, the group got the chance to see inside containment, the turbine generator and the control room of Unit 3.

The meeting focused on critical topics to assist Participants in advancing and securing their infrastructure with readily available funding and resources. An overview of the presentations follows, and they can be viewed in their entirety at: ECG/MEAG Cybersecurity Working Group Meeting Presentations.

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Amy Thomas and Sarah Mathias of the American Public Power Association (APPA) discussed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure and Jobs Act signed into law by President Biden that provides funding for the following:

• Transportation Infrastructure, particularly as it relates to electric vehicles
• Grid Resiliency Infrastructure
• Cybersecurity
• Enhanced grid security through public-private partnerships
• Incentives for advanced cybersecurity tech investments
• Rural and Municipal Utility Advanced Cybersecurity Grant and Technological Assistance Program
• Enhanced Grid Security

Georgia Tech Research Institute Opportunities

Trevor Lewis of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) presented a potential research opportunity. GTRI has applied for a Department of Energy (DOE) grant that would establish a “Cybersecurity Center” for energy sector cybersecurity research. If awarded the grant, GTRI will establish partnerships with energy utility providers to conduct research projects to improve their security posture.

CISA Directives and Available Services

Carter Manucy of the Florida Municipal Power Authority (FMPA) presented on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Directives and other available services. He pointed out four areas to focus on: reducing the likelihood of a damaging cyber intrusion, quickly detecting a potential intrusion, ensuring that the organization is prepared to respond if an intrusion occurs, and maximizing the organization’s resilience to a catastrophic cyber incident.

Log4j Vulnerability

John Daho, MEAG Power’s cyber security manager, explained that the Log4j vulnerability is an open-source logging framework for Java utilized by software developers to log error information (e.g. debugging or communicating with internal directory services). Additionally, John explained how the government, industry, and MEAG Power responded to the threat. He also cited links to valuable cybersecurity resources and tools to assist utilities.

Roundtable Discussion – CARES Act

Ronnie Barrett of the Marietta Board of Lights and Water (BLW) facilitated the roundtable discussion centered on the CARES Act. He mentioned some of the federal bills related to the COVID Pandemic that were signed into law to support prevention, preparation, and response efforts. He shared the types of IT purchases and requests Marietta BLW made with their funding under the CARES Act.

Until it was trumped by Hyundai’s announcement in May that it would invest $5.5 billion in its own EV and battery plant in Bryan County, near Savannah, creating 8,100 new jobs.

On their merits, both announcements were astounding. Yet, they are only the biggest of numerous EV-related projects and initiatives announced over the past couple of years that seem to position Georgia as a nexus of the growing EV industry – with a number of related infrastructure companies and suppliers investing billions of dollars more in the state.

EV Growth Likely to Fuel Participant Growth

The growth of this industry, likewise, seems destined to fuel growth among MEAG Power Participants, both directly and indirectly. Some Participant communities are benefitting from direct and secondary investment from EV-related plant construction, tax-base growth and ancillary economic benefits. Down the road, as EVs begin to predominate, a boost in electricity sales seems a likely benefit across the board.

Commerce is a great example. SK Battery America is building two plants on a massive site along I-85 in Commerce. The $2.6 billion project, announced in 2018, will produce batteries for the Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck and the Volkswagen ID.4. Plant one was slated to begin commercial operation early this year, while plant two is set to begin production in the first quarter of 2023. Approximately 2,600 jobs will be created at the plants by the end of 2023.

Construction and ongoing operations of the Rivian plant — only its second production plant — should have similar benefits to Covington. Rivian plans to build a carbon-conscious campus, with the plant eventually employing more than 7,500 workers. Once ramped up, the facility will be capable of producing up to 400,000 vehicles per year. Construction on the facility is expected to begin in the summer of this year, and the start of production is slated for 2024.

According to Rivian, site considerations included logistics, environmental impact, renewable energy production, availability and quality of talent, and a good fit with the Rivian company culture.

West Point got a similar economic boost when Kia chose the city for its first and only U.S. production plant 15 years ago. Kia’s investment helped rejuvenate the area, delivering 2,700 jobs from Kia and thousands more from suppliers that also located in the state. Kia, which is part of the Hyundai Motor Group, says it will have 11 new electric vehicles by 2026 and hopes that by 2030, EVs, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids will comprise 40 percent of all its sales. It’s not a stretch to think that the West Point plant will eventually be involved in the changeover to EVs; it was touted to be in the running to build an Apple EV before that plan was scuttled last year.

Rivian’s new plant will produce not only pickups and SUVs, but also Amazon delivery vans. Electric buses are becoming more common, as well. Blue Bird, the venerable school bus brand manufactured in Fort Valley, expects to be scaling up eBus production capacity to 4,000 vehicles a year by 2024 to meet demand. It expects eBus demand to increase in part based on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which allocates $5 billion in funding for electric and low-emission school buses.

The University of Georgia has become a proving grounds, of sorts, for electric buses. It now has the largest fleet of electric buses on any college campus in the country. A fleet of 33 Proterra E2 buses (made in Greenville, S.C.) is a sign of the University’s strategic plan to advance sustainability at its Athens campus.

State Support of EV Growth

Georgia’s state government continues to work in support of EV growth, as well. In July, Georgia launched a statewide initiative to strengthen its position as a national leader in the electric mobility industry. Led by the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD), the Electric Mobility and Innovation Alliance (EMIA) includes partners from the private and public sectors ranging from electric utilities, government, industry, education, nonprofits, and other stakeholders, focused on advancing Georgia’s role in developing the electric mobility industry and its supply chain. ECG’s Daryl Ingram, senior vice president & chief external officer, is an advisor to the EMIA board. In conjunction with the initiative, GDEcD launched a new website: georgia.org/mobility. (See the Summer 2021 Current for a full report on the EMIA.)

And the state legislature just passed the Joint Study Committee on the Electrification of Transportation – https://www.gpb.org/news/2022/04/01/general-assembly-authorizes-study-committee-plan-rollout-of-ev-charging-stations – which should be signed by Gov. Kemp soon.

Charging the Foundation of EV Growth

Underpinning the acceptance and growth of EVs is, by necessity, a national charging network. The U.S. Departments of Transportation and Energy on Feb. 10 announced the availability of nearly $5 billion under the new National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) formula program established by the infrastructure law to build a national charging network.

NEVI will distribute the money over five years to help states create a network of EV charging stations, especially along the Interstate Highway System. The American Public Power Association (APPA), the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the Joint Office and the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) are working together to support EV charging plan development efforts.

Each organization has designated individuals to be the electric power industry liaisons to the Joint Office to help ensure utility engagement and facilitate the appropriate connections. For APPA, the designated contact is Patricia Taylor, Senior Manager, Regulatory Policy and Business Programs (ptaylor@publicpower.org). The APPA has also produced a very useful presentation called Navigating the Electric Vehicle Market.

Investor-owned utilities are also working on a national charging network. In late 2021, the National Electric Highway Coalition (NEHC), comprising more than 50 power companies, mostly investor-owned, announced plans to install EV fast-charging infrastructure along major U.S. highways by the end of 2023. The EEI is leading this effort.

The infrastructure work is being undertaken in response to increasingly rapid growth of EV sales. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office, sales of light-duty EVs in the United States rose 85% last year, while sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles grew 138%. The EEI estimates that about 22 million EVs will be on U.S. roads in 2030, requiring more than 100,000 fast chargers.

Previous Participant Visionary City winners include Douglas and Griffin in 2021, and Adel, Hogansville, Marietta and Thomasville in 2020.

“We’ve seen Georgia’s cities go above and beyond to continue serving and connecting their residents,” said GMA Executive Director Larry Hanson. “It’s our privilege to recognize the elected officials, city staff and community leaders responsible for this year’s visionary initiatives. These cities exemplify what it means to be forward-thinking and they serve as inspiring examples of civility, collaboration and what it means to create communities of positive change across Georgia.”

The Visionary Cities are grouped by population: Large (more than 25,000), Medium (5,000 to 24,999) and Small (fewer than 4,999). Lawrenceville represents the Large category among Visionary Cities, while Acworth, Covington and Moultrie all earned their designation in the Medium category.

Following are details of the civic projects and initiatives that helped each Participant earn the Visionary City designation. Reprinted with permission from Georgia Trend.

Lawrenceville

Summer job programs are nothing new. But the nonprofit community service group Impact46 had something significantly more robust in mind when it approached the city of Lawrenceville a few years ago about creating the Summer of Impact internship program.

The kids who participate in the program – students from Lawrenceville high schools – tend to be those for whom a summer job is a necessity, not an option. What if, organizers asked, those jobs could be more meaningful than just passing hamburgers through the drive-thru window for minimum wage? What if they could pay better, teach career-oriented skills and be worthy of inclusion on resumes?

Participants quickly learned there’s more to this program than just a job. Applicants must complete a leadership program, learn to develop a resume and prepare for interviews. And, once all the hurdles are jumped, the program holds a signing day, patterned after the signing day hosted for athletes moving on to college spots.

The city of Lawrenceville’s community relations, finance, public works and purchasing departments have participated, as well as the Aurora Theatre and the Gwinnett Stripers, a minor league team for the Atlanta Braves, among others. Success stories since the program launched in 2018 include a young man who had intended to drop out of school, but discovered he loved electrical work after an internship at the city. He went on to graduate and now works for the city while pursuing his electrical training.

“Through the Summer of Impact program, students from Central Gwinnett and Discovery high schools are given a unique opportunity to be immersed in their field of interest with a local business or nonprofit,” said Lawrenceville Mayor David Still. “It is a win-win for the students, the business and the community. Through this program, we are building a legacy of leaders in Lawrenceville.”

Acworth

Home to two historically Black churches and two schools established during segregation (the Roberts School and a Rosenwald School), Acworth’s Parkside District is central to the city’s diverse history. It was also in desperate need of redevelopment due to neglect and the effects of racial discrimination. Thanks to a long-term plan, designation in 2010 as an Opportunity Zone and a total of $20 million in investment, the district has gained parks, a community center, new restaurants, homes and businesses, an art center and a history museum.

Among the highlights are the new $12 million Acworth Community Center, with its Expanding Horizons program that provides field trips, recreational opportunities and mentorship; and the new Doyal Hill Park, named for the city council’s first Black alderman, with an interpretive exhibit featuring public art honoring Acworth’s rich Black history.

The city also made sure that Black historical landmarks were preserved, using community block grant funds to renovate the Roberts and Rosenwald Schools. Substandard residential property was replaced by subsidized housing for low-income seniors, and Downtown Development Authority funding built a pedestrian bridge that includes an elevator on each side and programmable LED lighting technology and which spans the railroad tracks, connecting each side of the district. Lastly, the 120-acre Logan Farm Park offers multiuse paths, open green space, a playground, group pavilion and more.

These “equitable and inclusive” efforts won Acworth the selection to the All-America Cities Hall of Fame. “The key challenge throughout the development and implementation process of the Parkside District was patience,” said James Albright, Acworth’s city manager. “There were years where we took huge leaps toward accomplishing our goals and vision, but also years that small steps were taken and not a lot was accomplished. In the end, patience and discipline allowed the city’s leadership team to follow the plan, one step at a time, and see it ultimately come to fruition. We are very proud of what the Parkside District is to our community, and we are honored to be recognized as a Visionary City.”

Covington

Like so many cities within the Atlanta metro area, Covington has grown like crazy. The city council and mayor saw it coming, listing “Prepare for the Community of Tomorrow” as one of the goals in the strategic plan. So when City Manager Scott Andrews was hired in 2019, he looked for unique ways to prioritize and enhance community engagement.

The city’s initiative is made up of a series of groups that residents can join, tackling issues ranging from community beautification, homelessness, future planning and more. Examples include Coffee Talks with the Mayor, a citizens’ police review board, a public art program called PAINT and a youth council.

“One of the key challenges as we started our community engagement initiative was bringing together the public and stakeholders to be a part of the programs,” said City Manager Scott Andrews. “Preparing for the city of tomorrow means ensuring that everyone has a voice at the table, so we took the goal of having as many voices as possible seriously.”

Andrews saw a unique opportunity to use electronic communications and marketing for the first time. The base group of contacts created from existing email lists, volunteer lists and local social groups is called Covington’s “Community Champions.” Social media helped spread the word about group meetings, and also widened participation by urging attendees to “bring one or two friends with you” to the next session.

To ensure groups got the proper attention, the city assigned two contacts to each. Group leaders were tapped to help facilitate efficient communication, including small group meetings with council, staff and residents. That way, someone is always available to assist with facilitation of the groups.

“It is so inspiring to see that when we brought many people into the room, they made the change happen for the community,” Andrews said. “We saw artists, social workers, planners and many others see a need in the community and provide for the need. Our many accomplishments would not be successful without our volunteers and for their dedication we are incredibly grateful.”

Moultrie

The transformation of Moultrie’s downtown didn’t happen overnight. Six years ago, the city worked with other downtown organizations to create a strategic plan whose goal was to improve blighted areas while making the redeveloped spaces attractive to residents of all ages, races and genders and encouraging economic development in Colquitt County’s largest city. Now five projects have made that reality.

Moultrie’s first pocket park, created from a vacant corner lot donated by Southwest Georgia Bank, kicked off the downtown enhancements. Two more parks followed: a walk-through park connecting to a newly renovated parking area, and Mule Barn Park, which turned a highly visible corner once clogged with debris, trash and drainage issues into an inviting spot with tables and seating walls, trees and plants, better lighting and other improvements.

“Mule Barn Park is a great addition to our downtown, enhancing its vitality and beauty,” said Mayor Bill McIntosh. “It will be enjoyed by many people for years to come.”

In March 2021, the fourth big project, a new downtown Welcome Center, opened and has already hosted thousands of visitors and conference attendees at its courthouse square location. Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College donated the former satellite office facility to the city. The fifth project added other downtown enhancements including a speaker system, free WiFi and a security camera network.

“All of these maiden projects have spurred private growth estimated to be around $2 million,” said Amy Johnson, Moultrie’s downtown economic development and public relations director. “Since beginning these projects, multiple businesses have opened, murals have been introduced and an announcement for a new mental health facility was made. Thousands of citizens and visitors of all ages, races and religions now experience and enjoy downtown more than ever before.”