ATLANTA Georgia Power Co. customers, as well as those who source their power from JEA, are expected to pay an additional $ 224 million per year for the first of two nuclear reactors near Augusta.
Georgia Power says the proposal would add about 3% or $ 3.78 per month to a typical retail customer’s bills on a bill of $ 122.73.
The tariff increase would begin when Unit 3 in the Vogtle plant starts generating electricity. The reactor is now scheduled to go into operation in June. Customers could be asked to pay significantly more once the fourth reactor starts generating electricity, which is now slated for 2023.
A $ 157 million rate hike, which costs a typical retail customer $ 2.87 per month, is also slated to begin Jan. 1. This is part of a three-year plan of $ 1.77 billion approved by commissioners in 2019. Customers are also likely to see a third separate rate hike to allow Georgia Power to cover higher fuel bills.
An agreement on the first of the new nuclear reactors was tabled Wednesday by the company and Public Service Commission staff tasked with protecting consumer interests. It recommends that the company get most of what it originally asked for. The commissioners who want to vote on a rate hike in November are not bound by the agreement, but such agreements are usually very influential.
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Georgia Power owns 46% of the two new reactors at the Vogtle plant. The Atlanta-based unit of Southern Co. is currently forecasting $ 9.2 billion and an additional $ 3.2 billion in financing costs. Those numbers could rise as construction delays continue to mount.
The Vogtle reactors are currently expected to cost more than $ 27.8 billion in total, excluding the $ 3.68 billion original contractor Westinghouse repaid to owners after bankruptcy. When approved in 2012, the estimated cost was $ 14 billion, with the first power being generated in 2016.
Other owners include most of Georgia’s electrical cooperatives and utilities. JEA and some other public utilities and cooperatives in Florida and Alabama are also required to buy the nuclear power. The Georgia Public Service Commission controls tariffs for Georgia Power only.
At a hearing on Thursday, several witnesses called for the proposed rate hike to be delayed or reduced.
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“Price increases are never welcome, but the timing of Vogtle 3 couldn’t be worse,” said Jeffry Pollock, an installment advisor testifying on behalf of the Georgia Association of Manufacturers. He suggested postponing some of the increase until early 2023.
Georgia Power’s 2.6 million customers have already paid more than $ 3.5 billion for Vogtle Units 3 and 4 under an agreement designed to keep borrowing costs down. However, rates are still expected to continue to rise once the nuclear reactors are completed. Public Service Commission officials previously estimated that the typical customer would have paid $ 854 in financing costs by the time the Vogtle reactors were completed.
The latest deal would allow the company to collect the $ 224 million a year to pay for $ 2.1 billion in construction costs, which commissioners have already approved as prudent under the deal. Georgia Power wanted to raise $ 235 million a year to pay for $ 2.38 billion in expenses, while staff originally proposed allowing Georgia Power to collect $ 125 million.
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“The staff now believe that the provision is in the best interests of the fee payers and the commission,” HR analyst Steven Roetger said at the hearing on Wednesday.
Georgia Power could declare the unit operational once it finishes testing and any required repairs. Should the unit subsequently prove unreliable or not perform as expected, the staff and the company agreed that the commission could order reimbursements if it carefully reviews the remaining Unit 4 costs at the end of the project.
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