Dalton Utilities banks on nuclear

DALTON, Ga. — Dalton Utilities is planning to invest about $200 million over the next seven years in what is expected to be America’s most expensive power plant.

But officials of the city-owned utility told its directors Monday that Dalton’s 1.6 percent share in two new reactors at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant near Waynesboro, Ga., should still pay off over the next half century and offer the cheapest source of new power.

“Over the life of these plants, nuclear is the least expensive and most dependable source of power,” said Anthony “Tony” Carroll, executive vice president of electric and gas engineering and operations at Dalton Utilities.

In a presentation to the Dalton Board of Water, Light & Sinking Fund Commissioners, Mr. Carroll said Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4, being built by Southern Nuclear, should generate power 88 percent of the time over the next 50 years at a production cost of about 4.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

By comparison, a new coal-fired power plant would probably operate only 70 percent of the time with a lifetime production cost approaching 5 cents per kilowatt-hour, he said. Solar voltaic units are projected to cost more than 12 cents per kilowatt-hour over their 25-year life, while operating only 17 percent of the time. Wind turbines are projected to cost an average of more than 7 cents per kilowatt-hour and generate power 25 percent of the time, he said.

“What makes nuclear so economical is that it has a long lifespan and it is so reliable,” Mr. Carroll said.

Southern Nuclear estimates that the two new units at Plant Vogtle will cost nearly $14 billion to build — the highest price of any U.S. power plant — and anti-nuclear activists think the price tag will go even higher.

“There is too much uncertainty about whether these new plants will get a license anytime soon from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or whether they will run as promised,” said Stephen Smith, executive director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which is fighting the proposed new units at Plant Vogtle.

“If new nuclear plants are such a great deal, why does the industry have to get federal loan guarantees for these plans to be built?” he asked.

Georgia Power is in line for $8.3 billion in U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantees to build the two new units at Plant Vogtle. But Don Cope, president of Dalton Utilities, said Dalton isn’t getting any federal loan guarantees and has already begun to invest in the plant.

Mr. Cope said the utility wants to become debt-free by next year and avoid borrowing for the new plant by paying for its share of construction as Plant Vogtle is built.

“This country has too much debt and we’re trying to set an example by being debt free,” he said.

During the construction of the first two reactors at Plant Vogtle, costs skyrocketed from an estimated $660 million to $8.87 billion. But Vogtle still supplies some of Dalton’s cheapest power, Mr. Cope said.

“In building a nuclear plant, there are thousands of points in a regulatory process where you can get off track,” Mr. Cope said. “It’s a dance with lots of different partners in a big crowd where a lot of people can step on your toes.”