Southern Co. announced Wednesday that it has filed the paperwork for a loan guarantee that's been under negotiation since 2010 for new reactors at Plant Vogtle.
Southern CEO Thomas Fanning made the announcement during an earnings call. He said financial details won't be disclosed until the deal is finalized, but "our earlier estimate of approximately $200 million of present value benefits is still representative of the loan's value to customers."
Four years ago, the Department of Energy offered to guarantee $8.33 billion in financing for Vogtle units 3 and 4 under the agency's Section 1703 program for "innovative clean energy technologies that are typically unable to obtain conventional private financing due to high technology risks." Negotiations were scheduled to be finished in 2012 but were complicated by disagreement over the loan guarantee's terms and changes to the program following high-profile bankruptcies among renewable energy companies using the program.
Scheduled to come online in 2017 and 2018, the new units are Westinghouse AP1000 reactors that together will generate 2,200 megawatts and make Vogtle the largest nuclear plant in the country. Southern subsidiary Georgia Power owns the project with Oglethorpe Power Corp., the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities.