The debate surrounding Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle expansion raged on during the latest installment of state regulators considering the controversial nuclear expansion project, which has doubled in cost and taken seven years longer to build than initially planned.
A utility watchdog, Vogtle monitors and analysts from the Georgia Public Service Commission testified at Thursday’s hearing on Georgia Power’s $35 billion nuclear plant that is supposedly nearing completion at last in Burke County, southeast of Augusta.
Georgia Power and other Vogtle promoters tout the benefits of nuclear power as a provider of a reliable and zero-carbon energy supply for the next 60 to 80 years. A number of utility analysts and clean energy and consumer advocates have long argued that the project’s benefits will not outweigh the ballooning costs customers will be stuck with in the long haul.
According to the state regulators’ Vogtle consultants, the company could collect $2.1 billion more from ratepayers over the course of construction than it would if the two-phase expansion had been finished in 2016 and 2017. Georgia Power officials are now targeting to have the Unit 3 reactor completed this summer after missing an announced June completion date, and Unit 4 is projected to enter service by early 2024.
(READ MORE: First of two new reactors reaches 100% power output at Georgia’s Plant Vogtle)