It’s still unclear how much of a risk there is of further delays and price increases of ongoing nuclear energy expansion at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle.
But in a hearing Tuesday, experts for the state reiterated concerns about struggles for the project south of Augusta. Georgia Power customers are already paying for financing of the expansion on their monthly power bills and one expert has said any additional delay could cost the company $2 million a day. Those costs could be picked up by ratepayers.
There are “a lot of challenges and uncertainty,” said William Jacobs, the independent construction monitor hired by the Georgia Public Service Commission to watch the project and periodically report on its status.
Another expert, PSC staff analyst Steven Roetger, said a consortium of contractors on the project was supposed to turn in a detailed schedule of the work ahead, but he said it was “a bit of a disappointment” that the schedule was turned in late and incomplete.
Georgia Power, which has previously said it is confident in contractor commitments that the work will stay on schedule, has not yet started its cross-examination of the PSC experts. It is scheduled to do that later today.
The hearing follows written testimony turned in by the experts last month. Vogtle’s expansion, which is expected to produce power for an additional 500,000-plus homes, is already two years behind its initial schedule. The first of the plant’s new nuclear units it slated to go online in late 2017. The second is expected in late 2018.
The project was initially expected to cost about $14 billion, a price that would borne by Georgia Power and other utilities involved in the project. But delays have added what is expected to be hundreds of millions of dollars more.
