Georgia Power, Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1-4

Waynesboro, Georgia, USA

Gigaproject – Nuclear, 4,800 MW

Services: Auditing & Assessment | Strategic Consulting | Risk Management | Regulatory Support

The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) approved Vogtle not only construction of the two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors planned for the site near Waynesboro but also the recovery of some of the project’s costs through electricity rates, starting in 2011 before the reactors were to enter service.

The Georgia PSC set Georgia Power’s “certified cost” at $6.446 billion. Because Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent of the plant, this would translate to a cost estimate for the entire plant of $14.1 billion. The process set up by the commission required Southern to go through an extensive consideration of alternative power sources, sites, and overall approaches to planning (such as demand-side management). In the end, the PSC agreed with Southern that new nuclear power at Vogtle was the preferred option.

Dr. Kris Nielsen testified on the prudence of the management decisions and processes used by Georgia Power in the Georgia PSC hearings in support of the Georgia Power filing for Vogtle’s certification, including the selection of Toshiba/Shaw as the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor. The same team of senior Pegasus-Global personnel who performed a prudence review and testified regarding Vogtle 3 & 4 had previously performed a prudence evaluation of Vogtle 1 & 2 at the time those two units were constructed.