State utility regulators signed off on the latest round of construction costs for Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project Friday, a day after parent Southern Co. won federal approval to begin major construction.
The approved costs cover the first six months of 2011. In hearings before the PSC last November, company executives told regulators that construction costs were $42 million over budget for that period, in part because the utility has had to send additional workers to oversee the project. This is to meet stricter company and federal regulatory standards, the company said.
Meanwhile, the financing costs of the project are $60 million under budget.
Georgia Power is part of a group building two 1,100-megawatt reactors at Vogtle, in Burke County south of Augusta. The utility is responsible for $6.1 billion of the estimated $14 billion project. The Georgia Public Service Commission reviews the project’s costs every six months to identify any potential cost increases or schedule delays early instead of discovering them after the reactors start producing power in 2016 and 2017.
Georgia Power customers are paying down the project’s financing costs early through a fee on monthly bills. Changes in the project’s periodic budgeted costs do not affect the total cost of the project and will not be reflected on customer bills.
Tom Fanning, Southern’s chief executive officer, said in a news conference that Georgia Power and the other utilities involved at Plant Vogtle have spent $4 billion on the project so far.
Atlanta-based Southern Co., on Friday received the official combined construction and operating license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, following Thursday’s 4-1 vote. The units are the first newly permitted reactors in the United States in 33 years.
