A federal panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled that for practical reasons the construction cost dispute between Georgia Power and contractors Westinghouse Electric and Chicago Bridge Iron subsidiary Stone & Weber should be heard in a court in Georgia.
The three-judge panel simply ruled that Georgia was the site of the Vogtle Unit 3 and 4 reactor build project, which would make federal district courts in Georgia more convenient for calling witnesses to the stand and would put it in a location where expertise on Georgia state law was more readily at hand.
“The contract, which specifies that it is to be governed by Georgia law, sets a fixed price for the work but includes reimbursement for some additional costs,” the appeals court said in its ruling.
The companies have each filed suit, which are “to a large extend, the mirror image of the other,” said the court, noting that neither party has made a claim that the legal matter should not move forward.
It also said the two lawsuits were, in effect, simultaneous and should be treated as such in court.
In a report filed earlier this month, Georgia Power, which owns 45.7 percent of the project, said that costs had risen by about $1 billion more than previously estimated. That included $246 million that it said would be paid by the contractors and $788 million in financing costs, which presumably would be passed down to customers under the Nuclear Construction Costs and Recovery Schedule under Georgia law.
In January 2013, Georgia Power estimated financing costs would increase the base amount of customer bills by 7. 5821 percent, a considerable drop from the 12 percent increase the company expected bills to rise in an earlier estimate.