This step, known as initial criticality, happens when the nuclear fission reaction becomes self-sustaining and is necessary to generate enough heat to produce electricity. Operators will now continue increasing power through multiple steps, ultimately raising power to 100 percent.

Startup testing will continue at Unit 4. This includes demonstrating the integrated operation of the primary coolant system and steam supply system at design temperature and pressure with fuel inside the reactor. 

Georgia Power recently said because of vibrations in the reactor’s cooling system, Unit 4 would not start commercial operation until sometime in the second quarter of 2024, or between April 1 and June 30.

The company said its construction budget won’t be affected if Unit 4 starts by June 30 but it would have to pay $15 million a month in extra construction costs if the project extends into July.

The utility said in a filing to investors that the vibrations “were similar in nature” to those experienced during startup testing for Unit 3, which began commercial operations last summer.

Vogtle Units 3 and 4, two AP-1000 reactors each with a capacity of approximately 1,100 MW, are the first new units to be built in the U.S. in more than 30 years. Cost overruns and construction problems have long delayed the project.

The new Vogtle reactors are currently projected to cost Georgia Power and three other owners $31 billion, according to calculations by The Associated Press. Add in $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid Vogtle owners to walk away from construction, and the total nears $35 billion.

The reactors were originally projected to cost $14 billion and be completed by 2017.

Plant Branch began commercial operation in 1965 and was retired in 2015. Prior to retirement, the plant had four coal-fired units capable of producing 1,540 MW of electricity.

The first phase of the Plant Branch reuse project will include the construction of an ash processing facility, expected to begin by the end of 2023. The facility is expected to be online in 2026 and will process ash that is excavated from the onsite ash ponds.

Once fully operational, Georgia Power said the facility will produce approximately 600,000 dry tons of marketable ash each year. The utility anticipates that throughout the project’s 15-year duration, over 8 million tons of ash will be excavated and processed to be used in concrete production.

The project is in partnership with Eco Material Technologies. The utility has coal ash reuse projects already underway at Plant Bowen near Cartersville and Plant Mitchell near Albany.

Eco Material Technologies, a producer of sustainable cementitious materials and cement replacement products, will manage the project at Plant Branch, including the end use of the excavated coal ash.

In 2022, Georgia Power announced a similar re-use project at Plant Bowen, which is one of the largest projects of its kind in the U.S. The utility said significant construction has been completed for the ash beneficiation plant since it began last September. It added that processing equipment, such as a 1,000 ton silo and dryers, have been installed, as well as process piping around the site. Transportation of harvested ash from Plant Bowen for use in the ready-mix concrete market is expected to begin in 2024.

In 2020, Georgia Power announced the first re-use project at Plant Mitchell. The company continues to remove the stored coal ash at Plant Mitchell’s three ash ponds. Georgia Power said over the next few years, approximately two million tons of ash are expected to be removed from the site to help create Portland cement, which is used to make concrete.

Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal in power plants that, without proper management, can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water and the air. Coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic associated with cancer and various other serious health effects.

In April 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated requirements for the safe handling and disposal of coal ash from coal-fired power plants, which established technical requirements for CCR landfills and surface impoundments.

The utility said the state is experiencing robust economic growth due to an influx of new businesses including manufacturers, the ET industry, data centers, and others. Many of these customers’ projects are larger than historical norms, Georgia Power said, with some individual projects exceeding 1,000 MW.

Georgia Power said its energy projections for the state now reflect energy growth of approximately 6,600 MW through 2030, up from approximately 400 MW previously forecasted in January 2022. For perspective, the utility said its current load growth projections are 17 times higher than what it forecasted in the 2022 IRP.

The utility’s ask in its updated IRP include constructing new conventional plants and procuring power from existing ones, along with the expansion of renewable energy resources, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and new and expanded distributed energy resources (DER).

Additionally, the company is seeking approval of the transmission infrastructure necessary to support these new generation resources to help ensure the continued reliability and resiliency of Georgia’s electric system. Specifically, the filing includes the following requests:

• Certification of a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Mississippi Power.
• Certification of a PPA with Santa Rosa Energy Center LLC for power from an existing natural gas-fired combined cycle generating asset located in Pace, Florida.
• Expansion of the Company’s implementation of BESS, including BESS co-located with existing solar.  
• Construction of new solar resources to be co-located with new BESS.
• Construction of new simple-cycle combustion turbines at Georgia Power’s Plant Yates. The company is proposing to locate the new units at Plant Yates to leverage its current infrastructure and recognize operational efficiencies.
• Addition of new and expanded DER and demand response programs.
• Acquisition of an additional ownership interest in an existing generation asset within the Southern Company footprint

Based on the company’s energy expansion plan in the 2023 IRP Update, the company anticipates adding a total of approximately 10,000 MW of new renewable resources by 2035, which is nearly double the 6,000 MW projected in the 2022 IRP. Notably, the company’s continued expansion of BESS and DER resources, such as those proposed in the 2023 IRP Update, are essential to ensuring that the grid remains reliable and resilient while the company continues adding renewable resources.

2022 IRP programs

Georgia Power continues to implement the programs approved in the 2022 IRP and is in the process of procuring new renewable energy through requests for proposal (RFP) processes, including distributed generation and utility-scale generation resources. In 2024, the company plans to issue a 500 MW energy storage system RFP, with resources anticipated to be online by the end of 2028, as well as an “all-source” RFP to address capacity needs for the 2029 through 2031 period.

In the 2022 IRP, the Georgia PSC provisionally authorized Georgia Power to develop, own, and operate the 265 MW McGrau Ford BESS project. The company continues to pursue the development of this facility and plans to seek final approval from the Georgia PSC by the end of 2024, with commercial operation of the facility projected by the end of 2026.

In addition to new generation resources, the 2022 IRP also included multiple customer programs designed to promote reliability and resiliency, such as the DER Customer Program. The DER Customer Program enables participating customers to subscribe to a resiliency service provided by company-owned, operated, and maintained DER.

The Oct. 6 filing noted that Southern Nuclear has started the process of replacing the faulty reactor coolant pump (RCP) with an onsite spare one from inventory. The new in-service timeframe is projected for the first quarter of 2024.

The filing said since Unit 3’s four RCPs operated as designed, Southern Nuclear believes that the motor fault in this case is an isolated event. Vogtle Unit 3 entered commercial operation on July 31, 2023.

Utility officials said the projected schedule for Unit 4 primarily depends on the “continued progression of pre-operational testing and start-up, which may be impacted by further equipment, component, and/or other operational challenges.”

They added future challenges could also include management of contractors and related cost increases.

Further updates will be provided in connection with Southern Company’s earnings call in November 2023.

Vogtle Units 3 and 4, representing 2,200 MW, are the first nuclear units to be built in the U.S. in more than three decades. But the journey hasn’t been easy: Cost overruns and construction problems have delayed the project. Project partners have disputed over rising construction costs and their stake in the venture.  

The utility is requesting information on standalone energy storage systems, energy storage systems with a renewable resource or thermal generation (citing natural gas or oil-fired resources). Each capacity resource identified would need to be at least 100 MW in size, with a single resource not exceeding 1,200 MW.

Georgia Power said in its 2022 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), the utility estimated a need of approximately 3,723 MW through Winter 2031. Now, the company projects greater capacity needs and sooner than the 2029-2031 timeframe.

An RFI is different than a request for proposals (RFP) and is intended solely for entities to inform a utility about available and planned capacity resources. After review of the RFI responses, Georgia Power may or may not explore the potential for future procurement options in connection with one or more resources.

This RFI is open through October 24, 2023.

ATLANTA (AP) — Residential customers of Georgia’s largest electrical utility could see their bills rise $9 more a month to pay for a new nuclear power plant under a deal announced Aug. 30.

Georgia Power said customers would pay $7.56 billion more for Plant Vogtle construction costs under the agreement with utility regulatory staff.

The Georgia Public Service Commission’s five elected commissioners must approve any deal, but such agreements are typically persuasive. With the commission’s Public Interest Advocacy staff and three ratepayer groups signing on, the agreement is likely to avert contentious hearings over how much blame the company should bear for billions in cost overruns at two new nuclear reactors southeast of Augusta.

Vogtle’s Unit 3 and Unit 4 are the first new American reactors built from scratch in decades. Each reactor can power 500,000 homes and businesses without releasing any carbon. But even as government officials and some utilities are again looking to nuclear power to alleviate climate change, the cost of Vogtle could discourage utilities from pursuing nuclear power.

Jacob Hawkins, a Georgia Power spokesperson, said the agreement represents “a balanced approach that recognizes the value of this long-term investment for the state and recognizes affordability needs for customers.”

Liz Coyle, the executive director of Georgia Watch, a consumer advocacy group that signed the agreement, said the reactors will never be cheaper than alternative sources of power. But since regulators, traditionally friendly to Georgia Power, allowed them to be built, Coyle said it was important to limit consumers’ exposure.

“I believe that this is the best outcome we could get with where we are in this process,” Coyle said.
Public service commissioners declined comment on the deal, saying all the evidence hadn’t been heard.

The project’s overall cost, including financing, is currently $31 billion for Georgia Power and three other owners, Associated Press calculations show. Add in $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid the Vogtle owners to walk away from construction, and the total nears $35 billion. The reactors are seven years late and $17 billion over budget.

Georgia Power says it has spent $10.2 billion on its share of construction for Vogtle Units 3 and 4, built alongside two earlier reactors. Public service commissioners originally approved the largest unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. to spend $4.4 billion. After years of delays and cost overruns, the commission said in 2017 that it would consider $7.3 billion as a reasonable cost for Georgia Power.

In a regulatory filing Wednesday, Georgia Power argued that $8.8 billion of the $10.2 billion had been prudently spent on construction, while $1.4 billion was wasteful and should be disallowed. But the company agreed to give up an additional $1.3 billion that it could have sought from customers, amid indications that Public Service Commission staffers would argue that even some spending below the reasonable cap was wasted by mismanagement.

The company says that would work out to an additional $8.95 per month for a typical residential customer, added to the current $153 monthly bill. The increase would begin when Unit 4 enters commercial operation. Georgia Power has loaded fuel into Unit 4 and says it will reach commercial operation before March 30.

Bills went up $5 this month after Unit 3 entered commercial operation. That’s atop a $16-a-month increase to pay for higher fuel costs two months ago. There was also an increase in base rates early this year, with another scheduled next year.

Hawkins said Southern Co. shareholders wouldn’t absorb additional losses under the agreement, because the company has already written off $3.26 billion in anticipated Vogtle losses since 2018. Georgia Power could seek to recoup some of those losses from contractors, and the agreement allows shareholders to keep all of any such gains.

Georgia Power owns 45.7% of the reactors. Smaller shares are owned by Oglethorpe Power Corp., which provides electricity to member-owned cooperatives, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton. Some Florida and Alabama utilities have also contracted to buy Vogtle’s power.

Ratepayer groups won other concessions. Georgia Power agreed to double the size of a bill-relief program that applies to some low-income seniors.

The plan is projected to add 96,000 beneficiaries over the next three years. That includes seniors in households with low incomes, and people of all ages who get federal housing vouchers or federal disability payments. The program cuts average monthly bills $33.50.

Georgia Power agreed to a 50% expansion in energy efficiency programs to help reduce energy use and lower bills beginning in 2026. The company also agreed to support state applications for a share of $7 billion in federal money to expand solar energy to low-income households.

Vogtle Unit 3 is the first newly-constructed nuclear unit in the U.S. in over 30 years and can power an estimated 500,000 homes and businesses, Georgia Power said.

Nuclear energy currently provides approximately 25% of Georgia Power’s overall energy mix, including the existing units at Plant Vogtle and Georgia’s other nuclear facility at Plant Hatch in Baxley, Georgia.

The final stages of construction and testing continue at Vogtle Unit 4, with the unit projected to be operational during the late fourth quarter of 2023 or the first quarter of 2024. The unit completed hot functional testing in May. The Vogtle site has also received nuclear fuel for Unit 4, with a total of 157 fuel assemblies necessary for the startup of the unit.

As the project received repeated delays the total costs have doubled, leading to a lawsuit in 2022 from Oglethorpe Power Corp., the city of Dalton, and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG) against Georgia Power. The plaintiffs claimed the rising costs should have triggered a clause in a 2018 ownership agreement, which would offload construction costs to Georgia Power after a certain limit. Georgia Power settled with co-owner MEAG in October 2022, but not with Oglethorpe or Dalton.

Also, last week, Georgia Power announced the receipt of the 103(g) finding from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for Vogtle Unit 4. This finding was confirmed in an official letter received by Southern Nuclear and signifies that the new unit has been constructed and will be operated in conformance with the Combined License and NRC regulations. No further NRC findings are necessary in order for Southern Nuclear to load fuel or begin the startup sequence for the new unit.

As defined by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), each ITAAC closure notice must be verified before fuel load.

The company now awaits receipt of the 103(g) finding from NRC documenting that license acceptance criteria for Unit 4 have been met. This will indicate that the new unit has been constructed and will be operated in conformance with NRC regulations.

All 157 fuel assemblies required for the operation of the Unit 4 reactor have been delivered to the site, Southern Nuclear said. Each fuel assembly was inspected and transferred to the new fuel storage racks before being placed into the spent fuel pool where all the assemblies will be stored until they are loaded into the Unit 4 reactor during fuel load.

Georgia Power said fuel load is expected at Unit 4 in the third quarter of 2023. The unit is projected to enter service in late fourth quarter 2023 or the first quarter 2024.

Vogtle Unit 3 missed its most recent deadline of June to come online, due to a problem in the hydrogen system used to cool its main electrical generator. Last month Georgia Power estimated the reactor will begin reliably sending electricity to the grid this month.

Units 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle are the first new reactors built from scratch in decades in the United States. The first two reactors have been generating electricity at Vogtle for decades.

The project, which is seven years behind schedule, has seen the cost that its owners will pay double to more than $31 billion. That doesn’t include $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid to the owners after going bankrupt, which brings total spending to almost $35 billion.

ATLANTA (AP) — Commercial operation of a new reactor at a Georgia nuclear power plant has been delayed for at least another month.

Georgia Power Co. said that Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, has a problem in the hydrogen system that is used to cool its main electrical generator. The company now estimates the reactor will begin reliably sending electricity to the grid in July, missing the most recent deadline of June.

The generator is not part of the reactor itself. It’s located in a separate building, where steam from the heat created by fission in the nuclear reactor is piped to spin a turbine, generating up to 1,100 megawatts of electricity.

The unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. said the problem was a degraded seal. The reactor has been shut down while repairs are made.

The reactor has already hit full power output as part of its testing, which Georgia Power said Friday was 95% complete. But the utility said commercial operation could be put off again if other problems develop.

Vogtle, which is seven years behind schedule, has seen the cost that its owners will pay double to more than $31 billion. That doesn’t include $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid to the owners after going bankrupt, which brings total spending to almost $35 billion.

Any delay is likely to add to those costs, but Georgia Power spokesperson Jacob Hawkins said he could not discuss additional costs. Parent Southern Co. told shareholders in April that a three-month delay at Vogtle’s Unit 3 would add $45 million to construction costs for Georgia Power Co., which currently owns 45.7% of the plants. That doesn’t count the company’s financing costs, or the costs to the other owners — Oglethorpe Power Corp., Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton.

Those other owners provide electricity for municipal utilities and electric cooperatives. They also have contracts to sell some of Vogtle’s electricity to utilities in Florida and Alabama.

Units 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle are the first new reactors built from scratch in decades in the United States. The first two reactors have been generating electricity at Vogtle for decades.

The fourth reactor has finished a key testing phase and operators expect to start loading radioactive fuel between July and October, aiming for the reactor to reach commercial operation between December and March 2024.

In Georgia, almost every electric customer will pay for Vogtle. Georgia Power’s 2.7 million customers are already paying part of the financing cost and elected public service commissioners have approved a monthly rate increase of $3.78 a month for residential customers as soon as the third unit begins generating power.

A July operation date means that increase would hit bills in August, two months after residential customers see a $16-a-month increase to pay for higher fuel costs. Georgia Power also raised rates by 2.5% in January after commissioners approved a separate three-year rate plan. Increases of 4.5% will follow in 2024 and 2025 under that plan.

Commissioners will decide later who pays for the remainder of the costs of Vogtle, including the fourth reactor.

Georgia Power first teased the collaboration in its 2022 Integrated Resource Plan as part of an effort to shift to a cleaner resource mix and eventually introduce long-duration or multi-day storage applications.

In its IRP the utility said it planned to evaluate opportunities in the 5-15 MW range to deploy this
technology and it would return to Georgia regulators for project approval once it identified an optimal application.

Form Energy is backed by the Bill Gates-led investment fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The company says its first announced commercial product, the iron-air-exchange battery, can deliver 100 hours of electricity at a price of less than $20/kWh.

Form says the technology’s basic principle of operation is reversible rusting. While discharging, the battery breathes in oxygen from the air and converts iron metal to rust. While charging, the application of an electrical current converts the rust back to iron and the battery breathes out oxygen.

The companies will continue to fully evaluate that the 100-hour iron-air battery technology will strengthen Georgia’s electric grid against normal day-to-day, week-to-week, and season-to-season weather variability. This analysis includes modeling by Georgia Power and Form Energy’s operational modeling tool for power grids.