Yet regulators say Vogtle was the right choice. Workers quit for other jobs and the COVID-19 pandemic led to high absenteeism.Ĭalculations show Vogtle’s electricity will never be cheaper than other sources Georgia Power could have chosen, even after the federal government reduced borrowing costs by guaranteeing repayment of $12 billion in loans. Experienced workers were in short supply and defective work often had to be redone. Department of Energy report details Vogtle’s other failings: Work began with incomplete designs and managers repeatedly failed to realistically schedule tasks. Add that to Vogtle’s price and the total nears $35 billion.Ī U.S. Japan’s Toshiba Corp., which then owned Westinghouse, paid $3.7 billion to the Vogtle owners to walk away from a guarantee to build the reactors at a fixed price after overruns forced electric industry pioneer Westinghouse into bankruptcy in 2017. Some Florida and Alabama utilities have also contracted to buy Vogtle’s power.Ĭurrently, the owners are projected to pay $31 billion in capital and financing costs, Associated Press calculations show. Smaller shares are owned by Oglethorpe Power Corp., which provides electricity to member-owned cooperatives, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton. Georgia Power currently owns 45.7% of the reactors. In Georgia, almost every electric customer will pay for Vogtle. They also finished fabulously late and over budget. “I don’t see how anybody in their right mind cannot avoid saying ‘Well, what evidence do you have?’” said David Schlissel, a utility analyst who testified against Units 3 and 4 after fighting the first two Vogtle reactors in the 1970s.
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