ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Power Co. is urging the state’s utility regulators to approve a deal to pay for the company’s new nuclear reactors as a few holdout opponents keep fighting to try to get the Public Service Commission to keep the utility from collecting any cost overruns for the two reactors at Plant Vogtle.
Commissioners began hearings Monday on the proposed deal, which would add $8.95 a month to a typical residential customer’s monthly bill, atop the $5.42 that Georgia Power is already collecting. The five elected commissioners, all Republicans, are scheduled to vote on the $7.56 billion proposal on Dec. 19.
The increase would raise the current typical monthly residential bill of nearly $157 by almost 6%. The increase would begin in the month after Unit 4 begins commercial operation. Georgia Power says that will happen next spring.
The largest unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co., Georgia Power announced the deal in August, agreeing with commission staff and some consumer groups. Without the agreement, the company could face months of contentious hearings over how much blame the company should bear for billions in cost overruns at two new nuclear reactors southeast of Augusta.
Vogtle’s Unit 3 and Unit 4 are the first new American reactors built from scratch in decades. Each reactor can power 500,000 homes and businesses without releasing any carbon. But even as government officials and some utilities are again looking to nuclear power to alleviate climate change, the cost of Vogtle could discourage utilities from pursuing nuclear power.
The project’s overall cost, including financing, is currently $31 billion for Georgia Power and three other owners, Associated Press calculations show. Add in $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid the Vogtle owners to walk away from…
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