Boston (Platts)--28Feb2013/107 pm EST/1807 GMT

Georgia Power said Thursday that it expects the two new nuclear units under construction at the Vogtle station to begin commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2017 and the fourth quarter of 2018, respectively.

The Southern Company subsidiary also said in its eighth semiannual construction monitoring report to the Georgia Public Service Commission that it expects the capital cost for Georgia Power's 45.7% share of the project to total $4.8 billion, or $381 million more than the utility had previously figured and the PSC has authorized. It asked the PSC to amend the certified capital budget for the project accordingly.

Most recently, Georgia Power and its partners on the Vogtle expansion project had pushed back the commercial operation schedule for Vogtle units 3 and 4 from November 2016 and November 2017 to sometime in 2017 and 2018.

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Originally, the new Vogtle units were expected to come online in April 2016 and April 2017.

Both the extended schedule and the higher capital cost of the project are "associated with the time required to obtain Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval of the plant design, the translation of the certified design into approved construction drawings, and the rate of production of certain structures comprising the nuclear island," Georgia Power said in its filing.

It noted that "[c]ommercial responsibility for the extended schedule remains in dispute, and the engineering, procurement and construction agreement contemplates a construction duration that is shorter than that reflected in the extension to fourth quarter 2017 and 2018."

Georgia Power said it "will engage with the contractor" -- Westinghouse/Stone & Webster -- "to determine whether a shorter construction duration is possible."

Finally, Georgia Power told the PSC that the utility anticipates that the net effect of adding the new Vogtle units will be retail rate increases totaling 6% to 8%, once the benefits of lower fuel costs and early recovery of financing costs are included.

Joseph Miller, executive vice president of nuclear development for Georgia Power, said in an interview the project will provide billions of dollars in net benefits to customers even under the 36- and 48-month delay scenarios the PSC recently asked the utility to examine.

--Housley Carr, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Jason Lindquist, jason_lindquist@platts.com

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