Georgia Power completes Plant Vogtle, $15/month hikes
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Georgia Power and its partner utilities completed Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in 2024, seven years late and at a final cost of $36.8 billion, the most expensive U.S. power project ever.
- Georgia Power customers paid a construction surcharge from 2009‑2024 that exceeded $1,000 for some households, and regulators later approved a $15‑per‑month base‑rate increase to recover remaining costs over decades.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration data show Units 3 and 4 are underperforming compared with the plant’s older 1970s reactors, while the new capacity added just over 7 % but residential rates rose more than 20 % per a watchdog report.
- Westinghouse Electric Co. filed for bankruptcy in 2017 after the Vogtle project suffered wiring problems, faulty components and off‑site part defects while building the AP1000 reactors.
- Kim Scott of Georgia WAND says the biggest failure was not construction but the lack of ratepayer protection, noting regulators ignored multiple chances to stop runaway costs.
- China has more than 30 reactors under construction at costs eight times lower than Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4, a disparity highlighted by nuclear advocates.
- Patty Durand of Georgians for Affordable Energy warns that cheap nuclear is always a decade away and points out that Texas added over 40 GW of solar for $50 billion, versus Vogtle’s 2 GW for $36.8 billion.
Why it matters: Ratepayers bear the brunt of the $36.8 billion bill, paying an extra $15 per month while the new reactors underperform and electricity rates have risen over 20 %, whereas utilities and nuclear advocates claim the project expands clean‑energy capacity and keeps the U.S. competitive against cheaper Chinese reactors.
