State Sen. Chuck Hufstelte: Vogtle

What is wrong with this picture. The longer they dittle in construction and the more expensive the plant gets, the more profits they make. Way more profits.  

State Sen. Chuck Hufstelter questions financial plan for Plant Vogtle

By Maria Saporta  –  Contributing Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle

an hour ago

A Georgia state senator is strongly criticizing the financial plan to pay for the two new nuclear power plants at Plant Vogtle.

Speaking at Friday morning’s Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable (SART), State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler (R-Rome), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, openly criticized Senate Bill 31 that passed in 2009 that approved the financial plan for Plant Vogtle. It was called the Georgia Nuclear Energy Financing Act, which permitted the utility to begin recovering the costs of financing the construction of the new nuclear plants from consumers before they came on line.

Pointing out that he wasn’t yet in office when that bill passed (he was elected in 2012), Hufstetler said, “It was probably a mistake to go forward the way it did.”

After the SART meeting, which is organized by Southface, a nonprofit group that promotes renewable enery, Georgia Power was asked to respond to Hufstetler’s comments. The utility’s response is presented in full later in this article.

But Hufstetler’s also strongly criticized the way the utility would be making profit from the project’s cost overruns.

Originally – in August 2008, it was estimated that Plant Vogtle reactors 3 and 4 would cost $14.3 billion and would begin commercial operations in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Now it is estimated that that the two reactors will cost $25.2 billion with the first reactor due to go into service in late 2021 and the second one scheduled to be operational in 2022.

Sen. Hufstetler said that because of the cost overruns, Southern Co.’s profit is now estimated to go from $7.4 billion to $12.6 billion – a difference of $5.2 billion.

“I don’t think Southern Co. should make additional profit just because of cost overruns,” Hufstetler said.

When asked if he would be seeking new legislation to limit the utility’s profit on the project, Hufstetler responded that he’s looking at options.

“We can still examine the profit (issue),” he said. “There are a lot of things that have happened that we can’t change. (But) we can look at the additional profit going forward. We can revisit the profit.”

Also, Hufstetler said the state can “make sure we put incentives in the right place” when considering future energy investments.

Specifically, Hufstetler pointed to the comparable costs of different energy sources.

Currently, he said the cost per kilowatt hour for nuclear energy will be 13 cents, compared to 4.4 cents for solar energy.

“We are putting a unit on line that’s going to be three times that cost (of solar),” he said.

He went on to say that nuclear represents 10 percent of our power resources in Georgia, but it will account for 20 percent of the cost of power.

“If our rates are going up and other states are going down, we will lose our competitive advantage,” Hufstetler said. “It’s a tough issue. We do need to look at the consumers in Georgia and protect them…