Although Southern Co. recently announced reactors under construction at Plant Vogtle will exceed their original budgets, Georgia power regulators voted Tuesday to wait until the first unit is complete before addressing any cost overruns.
Southern Co., which owns 45.7 percent of the project, now expects completion of unit 3 in the fourth quarter of 2017. In March, Southern also told the Georgia Public Service Commission its share of the project's cost was projected to come in 8.6 percent above the original amount approved by the state. Executives cited the delayed federal approval of the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design and the pace of fabricating "certain structures comprising the nuclear island."
In a unanimous decision, the PSC approved an agreement allowing Southern to delay its request to increase the project budget and recover the cost from ratepayers, according to a release from the agency. In the meantime, the company will continue to supply regular reports on project expenses and construction progress to the PSC.