“Georgia Power remains focused on protecting the safety and health of workers at the Vogtle 3 & 4 construction site.
1 there were 94 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 among construction workers at Vogtle. Protecting the health and safety of the Vogtle 3 and 4 team, as well as the surrounding community, continues to be the highest priority for the Project.” The utility said more than 7,000 workers are currently at the site, and in a statement this week said that as of Sept. Georgia Power in the report said the project “continues to navigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Project’s workforce, schedule, and cost. Georgia Power said the increased costs stemmed primarily from actions taken due to the pandemic, which included “higher forecasted costs for construction productivity, including the April 2020 reduction in workforce craft labor incentives additional resources for supervision, field support, project management, initial test program, start-up, operations and engineering support subcontracts and procurement.” (SNC), the utility’s agent for the construction, “continue to monitor and evaluate costs associated with the completion of the Project.” Georgia Power noted that its projected share of the total project cost rose after “recently announced contingency allocations and replenishment of contingency,” and said it is “not seeking approval of costs above the Commission-approved $7.3 billion estimate in this filing.” The utility in Monday’s filing said its share of the total project cost is projected at $8.5 billion, and said it and Southern Nuclear Co. The coronavirus pandemic caused a reduction in the number of workers at the site, but construction remains on pace for a startup in 2021. A look inside the containment area of Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, taken in August 2020. The project has continued to progress despite the pandemic (Figure 2), though, and has achieved several milestones in recent months, including placement of the final module for Unit 3 in May. The project’s total cost was estimated by analysts in 2019 at about $27.5 billion. The expansion project has been plagued by construction delays and cost overruns, and as recently as April there was concern the COVID-19 pandemic would further delay the project, as positive tests for the virus reduced the project’s workforce. Completion of the new reactors had been expected as early as 2016 when the project was first announced more than a decade ago. Three other project partners-Oglethorpe Power Corp., the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, and the City of Dalton Utilities-own the remaining 54.3%. Georgia Power owns 45.7% of Plant Vogtle. Units 1 and 2 at the plant, both pressurized water reactors with combined generation capacity of about 2,430 MW, have operated since 19, respectively. Units 3 and 4 are the first new nuclear units built in the U.S. The AP1000 is the only Generation III+ reactor to receive Design Certification from the U.S. The new reactors, each 1,100-MW AP1000 Westinghouse models, will be Units 3 and 4 at Vogtle. Construction of Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle in Georgia is now 91% complete, according to Georgia Power. The utility in the report said that through the end of July 2020, 35 systems or partial systems had been turned over from construction to testing for Unit 3, and four systems or partial systems had been turned over for Unit 4.ġ. Georgia Power said work on Unit 3 is 91% complete, and construction of Unit 4 is about 68% finished. The utility said that under an “aggressive work site plan,” Unit 3 could enter commercial operation as soon as May 2021, though the regulatory-approved date remains six months later. The latest report, also known as the VCM (Vogtle Construction Monitoring), said cold hydro testing of Unit 3 (Figure 1) is set for this month, with hot functional testing planned to occur during the fourth quarter of this year.įuel loading of Unit 3 also is planned by year-end. 31, in its “ Twenty-third Semi-annual Vogtle Construction Monitoring Report,” said work on the two-unit expansion at the site in Waynesboro, Georgia, is progressing on pace despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The target in-service dates for two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant site in Georgia remain November 2021 and November 2022, respectively, Georgia Power said in a filing this week with the state’s Public Utility Commission.