The Vogtle nuclear expansion project near Augusta in Georgia (United States) is now forecast to cost US$30.34bn, compared to an estimate of US$14bn when approved in 2012. That amount does not consider the US$3.68bn that original contractor Westinghouse paid to the owners after going bankrupt, which would raise total spending to more than US$34bn.
The project will comprise two AP1000 reactors of 1,117 MW each (1,250 MW gross) on the site of the Vogtle nuclear power plant (currently composed of two 1,229 MW gross reactors commissioned in 1987 and 1989). Construction started in 2013. The third unit is now scheduled to begin operation in March 2023 and the fourth in December 2023.
The new phase is owned by Georgia Power (45.7%), an affiliate of Southern Company, and cooperatives and municipal utilities, including Oglethorpe Power (OGP, 30%), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG, 22.7%) and the city of Dalton (1.6%). The municipal utility in Jacksonville, Florida, as well as some other municipal utilities and cooperatives in Florida and Alabama committed to acquire power from the expansion project. In 2018, Oglethorpe Power and MEAG entered into an agreement with Georgia Power in 2018 specifying that if costs reach a certain point, the other owners can choose to freeze their costs at that level. The two companies have now exercised that provision and started talks with Georgia, which refuses to shoulder more of the burden.
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