Westinghouse Electric Company and CB&I Stone and Webster, announced the completion of the Westinghouse's acquisition of the construction company that specializes in nuclear power plant projects as a division of Chicago Bridge & Iron N.V.
Stone & Weber will now reside within a newly created WEC subsidiary called WECTEC, the companies said in separate statements.
South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, principal subsidiary of SCANA Corporation and Santee Cooper, South Carolina's state-owned electric and water utility, originally contracted WEC and Stone & Webster to build two AP1000 units at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station. Today marks the first day under the new construction team structure of WECTEC and Fluor Corporation, which will serve as a subcontracted construction manager.
Although the transitions were known since late October, when the deal was struck, Fluor Corporation formally announced Monday that it had been awarded two subcontracts by Westinghouse to manage the construction workforce at both of Westinghouse's domestic construction sites, including the two-unit projects in Georgia and South Carolina, the first majority-owned and operated by Georgia Power and the second owned and operated by SCANA/Santee Cooper.
Fluor said it booked $5 billion in contracts in the fourth quarter of 2015.
As a subcontractor to Westinghouse, the prime engineering, procurement and construction contractor, Fluor will manage the majority of construction labor at Georgia Power's Vogtle Units 3 and 4 near Waynesboro, Ga., and at the two generating units at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County, South Carolina.
Westinghouse said changes at the would have “minimal impact" at the construction sites, "as most employees should be retained under the new structure.”
The transition, however, has legal ramifications. Georgia Power said in October that the deal allowed for settlement of lawsuits over project delays at the Vogtle construction site. The deal also included stipulations that prevent future lawsuits dealing with engineering, material procurement and construction.
The settlement wraps up construction delay disputes with Georgia Power, and other Vogtle co-owners, Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities.
Georgia Power, which owns 45.7 percent of the Vogtle facility, agreed to pay $350 million out of a settlement of more than $550 million. Oglethorpe Power Corp. was slated to pay $230 million.
Westinghouse was slated to pay $229 million for CB&I's nuclear construction division. CB&I maintains some presence in the construction projects, while writing off more than $1 billion in losses.