Unit 4 of the Vogtle Nuclear Plant has entered commercial operation, Georgia Power Co. said April 29, completing the plant's two-unit expansion that began nearly two decades ago.
With all four units now operating, Vogtle is the "largest generator of clean energy in the nation," the Southern Co. subsidiary said in its announcement.
"The completion of the expansion of the Vogtle nuclear generation plant to include unit 3 and now unit 4 is a hallmark achievement for Southern Company, the state of Georgia and the entire United States," Southern Chairman, President and CEO Chris Womack said.
The two new pressurized water reactors have nameplate capacities of 1,114 MW each, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data, and will replace some of the coal- and gas-fired power plants that Georgia Power intends to retire by 2028. Georgia Power estimated that Vogtle can now produce more than 30 million MWh annually.
"The new Vogtle units are a key piece of our strategy to meet the energy needs of our customers not only tomorrow but 20 years from now," Georgia Power Chairman, President and CEO Kim Greene said in a statement.
Commercial operation is a requirement before the company can begin recovering costs from ratepayers.
Vogtle unit 3 entered commercial operation in July 2023. In December 2023, the Georgia Public Service Commission approved a settlement agreement between Georgia Power, commission staff, and environmental and consumer advocates that would cost ratepayers $7.56 billion and result in a $729 million annual increase to retail rates after unit 4 entered commercial operation.
The $7.56 billion in cost recovery for Georgia Power compares with the more than $10 billion the utility said it expected to have spent by the time both units enter commercial operation.
Total cost estimates for the Vogtle additions are difficult to determine, given variables such as financing costs across the multiple owners and $3.7 billion provided due to the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC, the original builder. Some estimates top $30 billion, and testimony at Georgia PSC hearings in December 2023 included estimates of $32 billion to $35 billion or higher.
The original two units at the Vogtle plant in Burke County, Ga., just south of Augusta, Ga., began operating in the late 1980s and have nameplate capacities of 1,215 MW each. Georgia Power owns the largest share of both of the original two reactors at Vogtle, as well as the new ones, at 45.7%. Other owners are Oglethorpe Power Corp., which supplies power to Georgia electric cooperatives, at about 30%; the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, which supplies power to 49 public power entities in Georgia, at 22.7%; and the city of Dalton, Ga., at 1.6%. Southern Nuclear Operating Co. Inc. operates the new units on behalf of the co-owners.
Oglethorpe Power has estimated its share of the Vogtle expansion costs at about $8.3 billion.
Nuclear power comprised more than 25% of Georgia Power's generation in 2023, the company said.
The new Vogtle units are the first new nuclear capacity in the US since the Tennessee Valley Authority reached commercial operation of unit 2 at its Watts Bar Nuclear plant in 2016, but that unit was originally developed in the early 1970s and abandoned while under construction in 1985. Construction was restarted in 2007.
Southern Nuclear applied for early site permits for the new units in August 2006 and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a construction and operation license for the expansion in February 2012.
