Vogtle’s Year of Progress in 2017

2017 was a year of construction progress for the Vogtle expansion with 6,000 people from across the country onsite working to move the Vogtle nuclear expansion forward. The new units at Plant Vogtle (co-owned by Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities) are the only new nuclear units currently under construction in the United States and, once complete, will generate enough electricity to power approximately 500,000 homes and businesses. 

2017 Milestones

• Energization of the Unit 4 switchyard. Once the new units are online, the switchyard takes energy from the plant and feeds it onto the power grid to serve customers across the state. 

• Continuation of work despite setbacks. Westinghouse, the primary contractor for the Vogtle nuclear expansion and designer of the AP1000 technology being used for the new units filed for bankruptcy. Georgia Power and the other co-owners immediately put an interim assessment agreement (IAA) in place that allowed work to continue at the site. The IAA remained in place throughout the summer, keeping thousands of workers engaged and construction moving forward. 

• Announcement of new service agreement. Announced in May, a new service agreement that allowed for the transition of project management from Westinghouse to Southern Nuclear (the Southern Company subsidiary which operates the existing units at Plant Vogtle) and Georgia Power.

• New agreement with Toshiba. In June, Georgia Power entered a new agreement with Toshiba, the parent company of Westinghouse, affirming the value of Toshiba's guarantee at $3.68 billion. Parent guarantees were put in place to protect Georgia electric customers as part of the original contract for the project.

• First steam generator is placed. The first steam generator was placed for Vogtle Unit 3 in August. The 1.4 million-pound steam generator marked the first major lift with Southern Nuclear in charge of oversight activities at the construction site. On August 31, Georgia Power filed a recommendation, supported by all of the other co-owners, to continue construction of the Vogtle project with the Georgia PSC.

• New agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy. Georgia Power announced a new agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a conditional commitment of approximately $1.67 billion in additional loan guarantees during September.  With a total of more than $5 billion in anticipated DOE loan guarantees, Georgia Power expects to be able to provide more than $500 million in present-value benefits to its customers.

• New agreement with Toshiba for payments. Georgia Power announced a new agreement with Toshiba to receive all remaining scheduled payments from Toshiba in the amount of approximately $3.2 billion by Dec. 15, 2017. Georgia Power's proportionate share of the payments is approximately $1.47 billion with every dollar to be used to benefit customers.

To view all of the progress made in 2017, and since the beginning of construction, visit the Georgia Power YouTube Channel and view new photos added each month in the Plant Vogtle 3 and 4 Online Photo Gallery.