JACKSONVILLE, Fla. โ JEAโs Board of Directors on Friday signed off on a plan to close a coal-fired power plant in Georgia as part of an effort to shift to cleaner sources of energy.
The city-owned utility and Florida Power & Light have jointly owned Plant Scherer, Unit 4, an 848-megawatt plant in Macon operated by the Georgia Power Company, since 1989.
Also Friday, JEA committed to a 20-year power purchase agreement with FPL, which is meant to lower the utilityโs operating costs and lower carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 1.3 million tons a year.
As News4Jax previously reported, JEA remains on the hook for a financial commitment of nearly $3 billion for Plant Vogtle, a power plant located in Waynesboro, Georgia, that remains under construction.
The utility tried unsuccessfully to back out of the 20-year power purchase agreement as the project has fallen behind schedule and costs have skyrocketed.