From the amount of electricity they’ll produce to their total cost, everything about the two new nuclear reactors that Georgia Power has been building at Plant Vogtle near Augusta is big. Now that the company officially placed the first of those reactors, Unit 3, into commercial service, here are the numbers you need to know about the project.
More than $35 billion
That’s the estimated total cost of the units so far, which are owned by Georgia Power and its three partners in the project: Oglethorpe Power, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities. When the reactors were first greenlit, it was projected that they would cost $14 billion to complete.
7 years
That’s how far behind schedule Unit 3 was when it reached completion. Grading of the site began in 2009 and the reactor was supposed to come online in April 2016.
It’s twin, Unit 4, was supposed to be finished by April 2017 and is currently delayed by more than six years. Georgia Power says it will be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
500,000
That’s the number of homes and businesses each of the two new Vogtle reactors will be able to provide power to at their maximum output of 1,100 megawatts, according to Georgia Power. Both units are expected to operate for the next 60 to 80 years, the company has said.
$926
That’s how much Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) staff estimates the average Georgia Power residential customer will have paid for the Vogtle reactors by the time the second unit is complete. If the units had been finished on time, PSC experts say customers would have pre-paid half as much for the project.
$9 billion
That’s the size of Georgia Power’s share of the cost overruns from the Plant Vogtle expansion. How much of that tab Georgia Power ratepayers will cover isn’t known — that’s up to regulators at the PSC to decide.
Commission staff have estimated Vogtle costs could lead to monthly rate hikes for residential customers of $14.10 per month for the first five years after the units are in service. The size of the increase would dip to $13.20 for the next five years, but exact amounts depend on what the PSC allows the company to charge customers for.
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