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Georgia Power rates will increase by just under $9 for the typical customer when the last new nuclear reactor at Plant Vogtle goes online, under a deal regulators approved Tuesday. The vote wrapped up over a decade of hearings on the ongoing project.
The Vogtle construction has taken 14 years. During that time, the Georgia Public Service Commission has held regular hearings going over the project’s status, its ever-growing timeline, and its spiraling costs.
“And now the moment we’ve been waiting for,” commission chair Jason Shaw said before the vote.
“It’s kinda hard to believe that all the work that’s been done on this project over many years boils down to this.”
The commissioners voted unanimously to approve a deal between Georgia Power, the commission staff, and several consumer and business advocacy groups.
Under the agreement, Georgia Power will take on $2.626 billion of its estimated $10.2 billion share of the construction cost. Customers will pay for the remaining $7.562 billion.
Georgia Power shares ownership of the new reactors with other utilities, including Oglethorpe Power and the Municipal Energy Authority of Georgia, with the total cost for all the co-owners being estimated at more than $30 billion. The cost impact to those utilities’ customers will vary.
Advocates have called the Georgia Power agreement a fair deal for customers. However, some have criticized the commission for accepting the agreement instead of holding more in-depth public hearings on the prudency of the project’s costs.
“In an ideal world, they would have regular, thorough hearings to review all the expenses so that we can all see what happened,” said Patty Durand, a candidate for the PSC and longtime critic of its actions, before this month’s foreshortened hearings.
“And then anything that was not deemed reasonable and prudent should be disallowed. Georgia Power customers should not have to pay for costs that are ridiculous.”
The rate hike will kick in when the final reactor, Plant Vogtle Unit 4, enters service, which is currently predicted to happen in the early months of 2024.
Customers will see another increase in their bills before that. On Jan. 1, a rate hike the commission approved last year will add about $3.54 per month to the typical customer’s bill.
