Public Service Commission approves settlement, combining of Plant Vogtle monitoring reports

ATLANTA — The Georgia Public Service Commission approved on Tuesday by a vote of 4-1 a settlement agreement in the Georgia Power 19th Vogtle construction monitoring report for the reporting period of Jan. 1, 2018 through June 30 of that year.

This decision closes out the 19th semi-annual Vogtle construction monitoring report in Docket 29849. Voting for the stipulation were Commission Chairman Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, Vice Chairman Tim Echols, Chuck Eaton and Jason Shaw. Voting no was Commissioner Tricia Pridemore.

Along with the settlement and the combining of the reports comes an increase of funding for more consultants to monitor the project.

“These additional consultants, who have extensive experience in estimating, construction and management of large scale construction projects including nuclear power plants, will work for the commission only, not for Georgia Power,” McDonald said in a statement. “They will provide the commission with an independent assessment of the construction of the project. Electric customers throughout Georgia, whether served by Georgia Power or by its partners in the Vogtle project, will benefit from this robust and independent review of the cost and schedule.”

The settlement between the commission’s public interest advocacy staff and Georgia Power calls for combining the next two monitoring reports. Georgia Power was originally scheduled to file its next report at the end of February, but the company is in the midst of re-baselining the cost and schedule of the project and the re-baselining is not scheduled to be complete until April.

Officials said that, under the settlement, the company will file a progress report on the re-baselining no later than May 15. The commission’s staff and its consultants will file their own assessment of the re-baselining on July 31. The company will file a combined 20th and 21st report on Aug. 31.

As part of this decision, the commission verifies and approves $526.4 million in expenditures by Georgia Power. This decision is not a ruling on whether the expenditures are prudent but only acknowledges the company has spent the funds on the project. An additional $51.6 million, which the company requested be verified and approved in this proceeding, is not approved at this time.

Officials said this money is related to the company’s Westinghouse bankruptcy proceeding. The action on Tuesday does not constitute a disallowance, and the company may file for consideration in a future report proceeding along with any evidence or confirmation that the money was actually spent on the project.

The commission also approved a modification of the company’s allowance for commission monitoring costs up to $3.8 million to allow the commission additional resources to monitor the project in light of the termination of the fixed price contract with Westinghouse and the resulting shift of more cost risk to ratepayers. This is an increase of $2.1 million over the previous monitoring cost allowance.

In addition, this sum will not be charged against or be part of the $7.3 billion capital construction cost approved in the 17th report.

“The $2.6 million for additional consultants on the now $16 billion total project capital cost for all the partners is appropriate and needed,” Eaton said. “This will help ensure that the project receives a high level of oversight so that ratepayers are not burdened with unnecessary expenses.”

“With this decision we are a step closer to finishing this monumental clean energy project,” Echols said. “As our country inches towards putting a price on CO2 emissions, the Vogtle units are positioned to deliver billions in savings.”

In a separate statement, Pridemore explained the reasoning for her dissension, saying she thought the settlement was flawed in part by the fact that all the sections had to be accepted in their entirety.

“Sections 1 and 2 of the stipulation provide for continuation of the Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 construction project by verifying and approving $526.4 million for the first six months of 2018, and does not verify and approve $51.6 million related to Georgia Power’s portion of a $112.9 million administrative claim as part of the Westinghouse bankruptcy,” she said. “These sections of the stipulation make sense for the continuation of the project. Both use sound judgment of expense review and continued oversight.

“However, section 3 gives a 200 percent increase to commission staff consulting services resulting in an additional $2.6 million for ratepayers to absorb. Combined with Section 4 and the elimination of (the 20th report), these additional costs are not in the best interests of ratepayers at this time.”

Plant Vogtle is a nuclear power electric generating plant near Waynesboro. When fully operational, Units Three and Four now under construction will produce 2,200 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 500,000 homes. Vogtle Units One and Two have been in commercial operation since 1987 and 1989, respectively.

The commission certified Georgia Power’s share of the construction cost of Plant Vogtle Units Three and Four on March 17, 2009 at $6.114 billion. Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent of Vogtle with its partners, Oglethorpe Power Corporation, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton Utilities, which own the remaining 54.3 percent.

The PSC is a five-member constitutional agency that exercises its authority and influence to ensure that consumers receive safe, reliable, and reasonably-priced telecommunications, electric and natural gas service from financially viable and technically competent companies.

For more information on the commission, visit www.psc.state.ga.us.