In early January, Georgia Power and the other owners of the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project announced an agreement with contractors Westinghouse and CB&I that “settles all claims currently in litigation.” Additionally, the utilities noted that the settlement reaffirms the current in-service dates, currently set for June 2019 for Unit 3 and June 2020 for Unit 4. Prior to the settlement, Georgia Power and its project co-owners—Oglethorpe Power Corp., Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities—had been locked in litigation with the contractors over an estimated $900 million in disputed costs.
Georgia Power—which owns roughly 46% of the project—reported that its portion of the settlement totaled roughly $350 million. The utilities still must submit the settlement agreement to the Georgia Public Service Commission for approval. The Jan. 4 agreement came on the heels of news that Fluor Corp. had acquired CB&I’s U.S. nuclear business and Westinghouse’s announcement that it had in turn hired Fluor as a subcontractor to manage construction of both the Vogtle and V.C. Summer nuclear expansion projects.