PSC begins review of Vogtle overage | The Augusta Chronicle

ATLANTA – Georgia Power executives repeated assurances that the utility would be better at managing costs Thursday in the first day of hearings on raising the construction budget for its work at Plant Vogtle.

The executives fielded critical questions Thursday during their first testimony since announcing the firm could not meet its state-approved budget to build two more nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power has asked to raise the budget for its share of the massive project by $737 million to roughly $6.85 billion.

“The trend is delay and overruns,” Public Service Commissioner Stan Wise said. “Is there any reason to believe the trend is not going to continue through the construction phase?”

David McKinney, a vice president of nuclear construction, offered the first of multiple assurances that things would go more smoothly in the future. By the end of the day, he had it down to a dozen words.

“I will tell you absolutely we can control the costs going forward,” he said.

Kyle Leach, Georgia Power’s director of resource planning, said lower-than-predicted interest rates would offset the impact of the overage on customers, who can expect to see their bills rise 6 percent to 8 percent.

The company cannot pass along costs to its customers without commission authorization.

Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols asked whether Southern Co. executives had considered an agreement like one reached in Mississippi. Faced with cost overruns while building a plant there, Southern Co. agreed to take a $540 million loss on unexpected project costs rather than passing along those expenses to its customers. The utility recently announced it might face another $160 million in additional losses on the same plant.

via PSC begins review of Vogtle overage | The Augusta Chronicle.