Municipal utilities back new Georgia nuclear plant

The board of a Georgia utility has voted to continue the expansion of a nuclear power plant that’s years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. But another co-owner still needs to decide the plant’s ultimate fate.

The Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia’s board voted unanimously Monday to continue building two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant near Waynesboro even though cost overruns at Plant Vogtle will cost MEAG anotehr $522.1 million to complete their share of the two new reactors.

That leaves Oglethorpe Power left to decide whether to move forward or abandon the project.

A down vote by Oglethorpe Power could sink the project, which now has a total estimated cost of $27 billion. Oglethorpe Power’s board is expected to vote this week.

Southern Co., the parent company of the largest share owner, Georgia Power, already indicated it is ready to continue after learning that $2.3 billion in new cost overruns are expected.

The Jacksonville Electric Authority, which is a member of MEAG, had indicated its opposition to finishing the new reactors. JEA Interim CEO Aaron Zacn told the Florida Times Union “a decision to continue [Vogtle] cannot be justified on any rational basis.” The Jacksonsville utility determined it would save hundreds of millions of dollars if the project is canceled, contradicting the claims of Georgia Power that the new reactors are

still worth finishing.

That new overage triggered a clause in the ownership agreement where 90 percent of ownership — all three utilities — need to agree to move forward.

The critical vote came just days after the federal government warned the utilities that any move to cancel the planned expansion would lead to demands for quick repayment of nearly $6 billion in federal loans.

In a letter to the three owners, the Department of Energy said late Friday that if the construction project is canceled, the government is “prepared to move swiftly to fully enforce its rights under terms of the loan guarantee agreements, including the repayment provisions.”

The letter calls the project “a linchpin in the all-of-the-above energy strategy required to sustain our nation’s economic strength and energy independence.”

But several state lawmakers sounded the alarm last week about cost overruns at the site, saying they wanted a “cost cap” established to protect Georgians from getting gouged on their electricity bills.

The plug was pulled on a similar project in neighboring South Carolina in July 2017 when the V.C. Summer plant was abandoned after going billions of dollars over budget.

The management of Dalton Utilities, which owns 1.6 percent of plant Vogtle, has voiced confidence in the nuclear plant in the past, although the utility’s president, Tom Bundros, did not respond to a request for comment on the project Monday. The latest cost overruns at Plant Vogtle are projected to add $36.8 million to the cost of the new Vogtle reactors for Dalton Utilities.