Ga. Power inks deal on Vogtle project oversight

Bankrupt contractor Westinghouse replaced as lead manager.

Georgia Power said it finalized an agreement to replace bankrupt contractor Westinghouse as the lead manager on its troubled Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project.

Under the agreement, Southern Nuclear, a unit of parent Southern Company, will take over the role for now. But Southern and Georgia Power, both based in Atlanta, will continue to assess how best to run the delayed project to build two new reactors at the plant near Augusta.

“We are already in the midst of a seamless transition for the thousands of workers across the site, allowing us to sustain the progress we are making every day on both units,” Mark Rauckhorst, executive vice president for the Vogtle 3 and 4 project, said in a Georgia Power statement on Friday.

The company said “construction momentum has continued uninterrupted” since Westinghouse’s March 29 bankruptcy filing, which followed heavy losses on the Vogtle project and similar work in South Carolina. The Vogtle project is more than 3 years behind schedule and more than $3 billion over original budget.

Georgia Power ratepayers already are being billed for financing costs of the project.

Westinghouse, which developed the AP1000 reactors being installed, will continue to provide support on the project, Georgia Power said.

Its parent, Japanese conglomerate Toshiba, has agreed to pay Southern more than $3.6 billion related to delays and contractor disputes involving Westinghouse. But Toshiba’s own future is uncertain, with a Wall Street Journal report on Friday suggesting it could also consider a bankruptcy filing to wipe away financial obligations.

Toshiba has maintained that seeking debt relief through the courts is not an option.