As continuing construction delays cause financing and related costs to mount, time is starting to put "significant" strain upon the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project's economics, according to recent testimony presented to the Georgia Public Service Commission by Georgia Power, state monitors and others. As a result, considerable discussion at the recent June hearings focused on whether completing the nuclear project still makes economic sense.
In its latest report to the PSC, Georgia Power repeated the contractor's latest estimate for completion, which extends the previous schedule by 18 months to the revised in-service dates of June 2019 and June 2020, for Units 3 and 4, respectively. Additionally, Georgia Power executives stressed the contractor—a consortium of CB&I and Westinghouse Electric Co.—was at fault but remained publicly optimistic that future schedule slippage could be avoided.