The Georgia Public Service Commission had verified and approved of $169 million in capital and construction costs that were submitted for review as part of the 12th Vogtle Construction Monitoring Report that covered the second half of 2014, said Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power.
The Georgia PSC reviews costs for the project every six months and has the authority to protect customers from having to cover expenses that are deemed unnecessary.
The commission has unanimously approved all costs submitted by the company since the project began, despite cost overruns and pushed back completion dates. Georgia Power's construction and capital investment in the Vogtle nuclear expansion is approximately $2.96 billion to date, the company said. It is expected that Unit 3 will go online in late 2019, to be followed by Unit 4 a year later. The projected completion dates are now more than three years beyond the original estimates.
Costs have also exceeded expectations. Costs for Georgia Power, which owns 45.7 percent of the new power station, have jumped from $6.1 billion to about $8 billion, the Augusta Chronicle reported.
As part of the 12th VCM Report, Georgia Power reported substantial progress at the construction site near Waynesboro, including the placement of the containment vessel lower ring and structural wall module CA05 in the Unit 3 nuclear island. Most recently, Georgia Power announced the August placement of the CA01 module for Vogtle Unit 3 – the heaviest "lift" of the project to date at 2.28 million pounds.
The expansion at Plant Vogtle is part of Georgia Power's long-term plan for providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable energy for Georgians well into the future. Once units 3 and 4 join the existing two Vogtle units already in operation, Plant Vogtle is expected to generate more electricity than any U.S. nuclear facility, enough to power more than one million homes and businesses in Georgia.
Southern Nuclear, a subsidiary of Southern Company, is overseeing construction and will operate the two new 1,100-megawatt AP1000 units for Georgia Power and co-owners Oglethorpe Power Corporation, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities, said Georgia Power in a news release.