CEAC-2021-07-July

Georgia Nuclear Plant Now Delayed
Until 2022 as Costs Mount By Jeff Amy | Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Power Co. has announced that
delays in completing testing means the first new unit at its
Vogtle plant is now unlikely to start generating electricity
before January at the earliest.
The unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. had in recent years
been aiming to complete the first unit in November, but
officials recently told investors that it would probably be
finished in December. Company officials have said that testing
began in late April, would take three weeks longer than
expected, and is unlikely to be completed before late June,
adding more time to construction and startup.
The additional month will add another $48 million to the
cost of the two nuclear units being built alongside two existing
units near Augusta. The project is now projected to cost
more than $26 billion for all its owners, including Georgia
Power, electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. Ultimately,
most electric customers in Georgia, except those in
the northwest corner of the state served by affiliates of the
Tennessee Valley Authority, will have to pay for the plant.
Florida’s Jacksonville Electric Authority is also obligated to
buy power from Vogtle.
The further delay was disclosed in a periodic hearing with
the Georgia Public Service Commission to discuss spending
and construction progress on the only nuclear plant being
built in the U.S. Commissioners must ultimately decide how
much of Georgia Power’s share of the spending is allowable
and how paying the bill will be phased in for 2.6 million
ratepayers.
Customers are already paying for part of the plant. Rates
have gone up 3.4 percent to pay for earlier costs and Georgia
Power projects rates will rise another 6.6 percentage points
for a total increase of 10 percent.
The reactors, approved in 2012, were initially estimated to
cost a total of $14 billion, with the first new reactor originally
planned to start generation in 2016. Delays and costs
spiraled, especially after the main contractor filed for bankruptcy
in 2017. The company and regulators insist that the
plant is the best source of future clean and reliable energy
for Georgia.
The first new reactor is 98 percent complete, but Southern
Nuclear Vice President Aaron Abramovitz said risk of delays
and problems doesn’t go away.
“I would expect risk to decrease,” he told regulators. “I
would not expect risk to go to zero.”
U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry speaks during a press event at the construction
site of Vogtle Units 3 and 4 at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating
Plant, in Waynesboro, Ga. Georgia Power Co. recently told regulators
that the first new reactor at the power plant isn’t expected to be complete
until January 2022 at the earliest because of delays in testing. (Hyosub Shin/
Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
Georgia Power has agreed to write off about the first $700
million over the $7.3 billion that the Public Service Commission
has approved. The company currently projects $8.7
billion in spending, though, plus borrowing costs ratepayers
will also have to repay. The company could seek repayment
of some of the amount over $7.3 billion.
“Exceeding the $7.3 billion, that does not mean the costs are
unrecoverable, it just means the standard of proof there has
changed, it has gotten higher,” said Georgia Power’s Jeremiah
Haswell.
The company says that workers being out with COVID-19 has
caused delays in recent months, as well as having to redo
electrical and other work that the company decided wasn’t
up to standard. Georgia Power said there’s some evidence
that contractors were declaring work complete without testing
for deficiencies, relying on inspectors to catch it and fix
any problems later. The company is currently engaged in hot
functional testing of the first reactor and has encountered
more expansion of metal parts as systems were more heated
up than anticipated.
“There’s a chance we may need to make some adjustments
to the structural supports,” Stephen Kuczynski, president
and CEO of Southern Nuclear, said of the thermal expansion
issues.
The second new reactor is supposed to start operating in
November 2022. The company says it is still on schedule.
Volume 86 · Number 7 | 17