Plant Vogtle, the largest nuclear facility in the United States, has become Georgia's single largest source of electricity following the completion of its two newest reactors. With a generating capacity of about 4,536 megawatts after Units 3 and 4 entered service, the plant near Waynesboro now supplies a substantial share of the state's around-the-clock power.
The buildout carried significant cost. The Georgia Public Service Commission approved a plan allowing Georgia Power to recover about 7.56 billion dollars from ratepayers of the roughly 10.2 billion dollars the company expects to spend completing the units. Georgia Power and shareholders of parent Southern Company are absorbing the remaining 2.63 billion dollars of construction cost. For residential customers, the project contributed to a cumulative rate increase of nearly 25 percent.
Units 3 and 4 were the first newly built commercial reactors completed in the United States in roughly three decades, ending a long drought in domestic nuclear construction. The project ran years behind schedule and well over its original budget, outcomes that have shaped debate over the economics of large light-water reactors and informed interest in smaller, factory-built designs.
With the units online, nuclear has overtaken other sources to lead Georgia's generation mix, delivering carbon-free baseload power that supports grid reliability as regional electricity demand rises. Utility planners point to the plant's steady output as a stabilizing element for the Southeast grid, while the cost recovery proceedings continue to inform how regulators evaluate future large-scale generation investments in the state.
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - https://www.ajc.com/news/psc-raises-georgia-power-rates-passing-most-plant-vogtle-expansion-costs-on-to-customers/6BAIOWM7J5BVHFZ2UN27KYXENA/