Document ID: EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602-33553
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2015-02-09T05:00Z

From: Mitchell, Ken 
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2015 5:49 PM
To: 'Karen Hays'
Cc: Pearce, Albert; 'Keith Bentley'; Wilson, Erika; Noonan, Jenny; Godfrey, Janice; Harvey, Reid; Banister, Beverly; Kemker, Carol; Gettle, Jeaneanne; Powell, Keri; Rinck, Todd; Hackel, Angela; Mitchell, Ken
Subject: FW: AJC Vogtle Delay to Cost $740 Million

Karen....

I heard about this on the news myself last week.  I am passing this information on to folks in EPA HQ.  Please be advised that EPA is docketing comments received after the close of the comment period (which closed 12/1/14), but we are not legally required to consider them or respond to them.

Thanks!

___________________________________________________________________
Kenneth L. Mitchell, Ph.D. │Special Assistant to the Director│
Air, Pesticides, and Toxics Management Division
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency │61 Forsyth Street, SW │Atlanta, GA  30303
Voice:  404-562-9065 │Fax:  404-562-9066│Email:  mitchell.ken@epa.gov
Healthier Families, Cleaner Communities, A Stronger America
NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential information.  If you are not the intended recipient, or believe that you have received this communication in error, please do not print, copy, retransmit, disseminate, or otherwise use the information.  Also, please indicate to the sender that you have received this communication in error, and delete the copy you received.

From: Hays, Karen [mailto:Karen.Hays@dnr.state.ga.us] 
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2015 7:23 PM
To: Mitchell, Ken
Cc: Bentley, Keith; Pearce, Albert
Subject: AJC Vogtle Delay to Cost $740 Million

Ken, 

I wanted to make sure that you (and your colleagues at EPA that are evaluating state comments on the Clean Power Plan (CPP) proposal) saw this article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on delays for the under-construction nuclear plants in Georgia (Vogtle units 3 and 4). The project will be delayed into 2019 for one unit and into 2020 for the other. This delay reinforces our concern about EPA's inclusion of the under-construction nuclear project in Georgia's proposed baseline, as discussed in our September 2014 comments to EPA.

Thanks, 
Karen

Karen Hays
Manager, Policy and Radiation Program
Georgia Environmental Protection Division
4244 International Parkway, Suite 120
Atlanta, GA 30354
Phone: 404-363-7115
Mobile: 404-788-3955
Fax: 404-363-7100

Atlanta Journal Constitution
Georgia Power nuclear project faces more delays
By Matt Kempner
January 30, 2015

Contractors on Georgia Power's massive nuclear expansion say the Plant Vogtle project will be delayed another year and a half, a development that might lead to pressure to add hundreds of millions of dollars onto consumer power bills over time.

While the risk of further delays has been warned about by state staff and monitors, Georgia Power on Thursday evening said contractors had informed it of the delay.

The costs to Georgia Power and for additional financing could be $40 million for each month of delay, or an additional $720 million, the company said in a regulatory filing. Costs could be substantially higher after factoring in having to rely longer on more expensive power generation at other plants.

Vogtle is already 21 months behind the original schedule, expected construction costs have risen hundreds of millions of dollars and Georgia Power is locked in a lawsuit with its contractors.

In its latest filing, the company said contractors Westinghouse Electric Company and CB&I / Stone & Webster informed it of further delays. That would push the in-service dates for one of the new reactors from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the second quarter of 2019 and, on the second new reactor, from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the second quarter of 2020.

Georgia Power said it "does not believe that the Contractor's revised forecast reflects all efforts that may be possible to mitigate the Contractor's delay."

Chuck Eaton, the chairman of the state's energy regulator, the Public Service Commission, said, "obviously the delays are a disappointment."

As for added costs, Eaton said, "Georgia Power and their contractors are going to have to sort through that. Most likely there will be big costs presented to us. The Georgia Public Service Commission is going to have to give that an extremely high level of scrutiny. We are going to have to do what is in the best interests of the citizens of Georgia."

The PSC must approve any rate increases for Georgia Power customers.

The commission "is going to have to decide if and how much of those costs were prudently incurred," Eaton said.

The expansion project involves the first new U.S. nuclear power units licensed in three decades. Plant Vogtle is near Augusta.

"Building it correctly, and safely, is more important than building it quickly," Georgia Power spokesman Jacob Hawkins wrote in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday.

He said the project will have long-term benefits for consumers and that other earlier adjustments have reduced the anticipated impact on consumer rates.

Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch, a consumer advocacy group that has frequently criticized the Vogtle project, said the state's ratepayers "need to be very concerned that these delays could end up costing them money unfairly."

"Consumers have a right to know sooner rather than later how much of these cost overruns related to delays apparently beyond the control of the company should be paid for in people's power bills."

Georgia consumers currently are paying the project's financing costs on their power bills. Regulators approved that advance funding provision as a way to reduce the overall cost of the project over time.

Said Coyle, "It's time for policymakers to tear up the blank check."