velcro
1 year ago
Nuclear power would have long ago set us free from OPEC and Joe Biden-types.
JEFF AMY Updated Mon, July 31, 2023 at 5:34 PM EDT
ATLANTA (AP) β The first American nuclear reactor to be built from scratch in decades is sending electricity reliably to the grid, but the cost of the Georgia power plant could discourage utilities from pursuing nuclear power as a path to a carbon-free future.
Georgia Power Co. announced Monday that Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, has completed testing and is now in commercial operation, seven years late and $17 billion over budget.
At its full output of 1,100 megawatts of electricity, Unit 3 can power 500,000 homes and businesses. A number of other utilities in Georgia, Florida and Alabama are receiving the electricity, in addition to the 2.7 million customers of Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power.
"This hadnβt been done in this country from start to finish in some 30-plus years," Chris Womack, CEO of Atlanta-based Southern Co. said Monday in a telephone interview. βSo to do this, to get this done, to get this done right, is a wonderful accomplishment for our company, for the state and for the customers here in Georgia.β
A fourth reactor is also nearing completion at the site, where two earlier reactors have been generating electricity for decades. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said radioactive fuel could be loaded into Unit 4, a step expected to take place before the end of September. Unit 4 is scheduled to enter commercial operation by March.
The third and fourth reactors were originally supposed to cost $14 billion, but are now on track to cost their owners $31 billion. That doesnβt include $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid to the owners to walk away from the project. That brings total spending to almost $35 billion.
The third reactor was supposed to start generating power in 2016 when construction began in 2009.
Vogtle is important because government officials and some utilities are again looking to nuclear power to alleviate climate change by generating electricity without burning natural gas, coal and oil. But most focus in the U.S. currently is on smaller nuclear reactors, which advocates hope can be built without the cost and schedule overruns that have plagued Vogtle. For its part, Womack said Southern Co. isn't looking to add any more reactors to its fleet.
βIn terms of us making additional investments, at this time is not something that weβre going to do, but I do think others in this country should move in that direction,β Womack said.
In Georgia, almost every electric customer will pay for Vogtle. Georgia Power currently owns 45.7% of the reactors. 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. Oglethorpe and MEAG plan to sell power to cooperatives and municipal utilities across Georgia, as well in Jacksonville, Florida, and parts of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
Georgia Powerβs residential customers are projected to pay more than $926 apiece as part of an ongoing finance charge and elected public service commissioners have approved a rate increase. Residential customers will pay $4 more per month as soon as the third unit begins generating power. That could hit bills in August, two months after residential customers saw a $16-a-month increase to pay for higher fuel costs.
The high construction costs have wiped out any future benefit from low nuclear fuel costs in the future, experts have repeatedly testified before commissioners.
βThe cost increases and schedule delays have completely eliminated any benefit on a life-cycle cost basis,β Tom Newsome, director of utility finance for the commission, testified Thursday in a Georgia Public Service Commission hearing examining spending.
The utility will face a fight from longtime opponents of the plant, many of whom note that power generated from solar and wind would be cheaper. They say letting Georgia Power make ratepayers pay for mistakes will unfairly bolster the utilityβs profits.
βWhile capital-intensive and expensive projects may benefit Georgia Powerβs shareholders who have enjoyed record profits throughout Vogtleβs beleaguered construction, they are not the least-cost option for Georgians who are feeling the sting of repeated bill increases,β Southern Environmental Law Center staff attorney Bob Sherrier said in a statement.
Commissioners will decide later who pays for the remainder of the costs of Vogtle, including the fourth reactor. Customers will pay for the share of spending that commissioners determine was prudent, while the company and its shareholders will have to pay for spending commissioners decide was wasteful.
Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene said the company hasn't decided how much it will ask customers to pay.
βThat will be determined as we move closer and closer to our prudence filing, but we have not made a final determination," Greene said.
eFinanceMarkets
7 years ago
$SO CEOs face "false choice" on engaging with Trump, Southern Co. CEO says
The notion that corporate CEOs cannot engage with Pres. Trump on crafting economic policies even while disagreeing with him is "a false choice," Southern Co. (SO -0.1%) CEO Tom Fanning tells CNBC.
"You can certainly look at the events in Charlottesville and say that was awful... At the same time, [CEOs] can remain engaged in the big issues of the day and make sure business plays an appropriate role - action not rhetoric - to make America better, to drive the economy forward," Fanning argues.
"I don't engage on the big, broad meetings" with the White House, Fanning says. "I engage in a smaller scale, private setting" on the issues important to the company.
Meanwhile, 3M (MMM +0.4%) CEO Inge Thulin is the latest to resign from Trump's manufacturing council following the president's reaction to the conflict in Charlottesville, Va.
eFinanceMarkets
7 years ago
$SO Southern rises after Q2 beat; says Vogtle nuclear project tab rises to $25B
Southern Co. (SO +2.3%) after posting better than expected adjusted Q2 earnings and revenues; on an unadjusted basis, SO recorded a $1.38B loss, almost entirely due to a $2.8B pre-tax charge the company took related to the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to build the Kemper clean coal power plant in Mississippi.
Additionally, SO discloses it will cost at least $25.2B to complete the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, raising new questions about whether the sole remaining nuclear facility under construction in the U.S. will get built.
The report of the escalating expenses, which have nearly doubled over the past nine years, comes two days after SCANA Corp. abandoned a similar project in South Carolina that also followed years of delays and rising costs.
eFinanceMarkets
7 years ago
$SO Southern Co. can overcome two problem projects, analysts say
Southern Co. (NYSE:SO) can withstand two big projects with problems - the behind schedule and overbudget Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia, and the failed effort to run the Kemper County project in Mississippi on "clean coal" - Moody's associate managing director Mike Haggarty says.
Noting that SO has several other utilities in various parts of the U.S., Haggarty says the company is "a big diverse organization, so they have been able to withstand the adverse developments at two of their utilities, but clearly it's a concern to investors.β
It's not SO's fault that low natural gas prices have made the projects, which were meant to be innovative, less competitive, says ClearView Energy Partners director of research Christine Tezak.
βIf natural gas prices had gone to $8 and stayed there, these projects would look so much more economically sensible... at $3 to $4 gas, the landscape is different," Tezak says.
eFinanceMarkets
7 years ago
Southern seeking $3.7B from Toshiba to complete Georgia nuclear plant
Southern (SO +0.4%) CEO Thomas Fanning says the company will need $3.7B and cooperation from Toshiba (OTCPK:TOSBF) to complete the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia that was being built by the bankrupt Westinghouse unit, and even then he is not certain it can finish the half-built reactors.
βWe are working with Toshiba to receive complete assurance as to the $3.7B guarantee that they owe us, whether we finish the project or not,β Fanning tells WSJ.
Fanning says he expects to conclude negotiations with Toshiba in the next couple of weeks; SO has agreed only to continue paying for construction through May 12, but the deadline could be extended.
But Fanning makes clear that even if Toshiba agrees to pay the $3.7B, SO still has not decided whether it would finish building the plant; he says a recommendation will depend on ongoing negotiations with Toshiba and an assessment of how much time and money it will take to finish the project.