Southern Nuclear adjusts its capital and construction cost forecast for Vogtle 3 and 4

Georgia Power recently announced that Southern Nuclear increased the capital and construction cost forecast for its share of the project and said that the company had made “significant progress” since assuming project management.

Based on a revised cost-to-complete estimate, Southern Nuclear increased its cost estimate from $7.3 billion to $8.4 billion. The company will absorb the additional costs, and they will have no impact on customer bills. The company has opted not to ask the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) to approve the increased costs, having received the PSC’s approval of the capital forecast last year.

The company also determined that the previous contingency for the project is insufficient to fully offset forecasted cost increases, resulting in an increased contingency of approximately $400 million. The company may present this to the Georgia PSC for evaluation in the future.

Georgia Power highlighted several milestones achieved recently including a major concrete placement inside the Unit 3 shield building that lasted more than eight continuous hours and the placement of a 52,000-pound Q233 piping module for Unit 4 inside the containment vessel.

“Significant progress has been made on the construction of Vogtle 3 & 4 since the transition to Southern Nuclear following the Westinghouse bankruptcy,” Georgia Power Chair, President and CEO Paul Bowers said. “While there will always be challenges in building the first new nuclear units in this country in more than 30 years, we remain focused on reducing project risk and maintaining the current project momentum in order to provide our customers with a new carbon-free energy source that will put downward pressure on rates for 60 to 80 years.”

The projected in-service dates are still in November 2021 for Unit 3 and November 2022 for Unit 4.