“Plant Vogtle is not an argument for wind and solar, which are also uneconomic and require government subsidies, penalizing taxpayers and running up the federal budget deficit. It is a call for a free market in electricity where ratepayers come first, while protecting the environment from wind, solar, and battery industrialization.”

“Clean Energy Strategist” Jamie Skarr revisited the Plant Vogtle #3 and #4 debacle with this summary:

World’s Most Expensive Electricity Just Went Online (Why It Matters) 💡

Remember when a gallon of gas cost 99 cents? Now imagine if one gas station spent 15 years building a “next-generation” pump that made gas cost $50 per gallon. You’d probably have questions.

That’s basically what just happened with electricity in Georgia. The state spent 15 years and $37 billion building new nuclear power plants that will force every resident to pay an extra $420 on their electric bills each year – forever.

Ed. Note: The following filing with the Georgia Public Service Commission by Jim Clarkson and Resource Supply Management is reprinted below. In the Matter of: Docket No. 29849 Georgia Power Company’s Twenty Fourth Construction Monitoring Report for Plant Vogtle Units 3 & 4)

 It has been clear for some time this Commission will support substantial rate increases for Georgia Power. Over the next two years it is estimated that the Company will seek about a $1 billion in new revenue with even more to follow as the Vogtle unit 4 comes online.
            Now that the first case of Vogtle recovery of capital and associated costs has begun, we offer our advice which has been ignored during the construction cases. There are ways to provide to least some relief to ratepayers.…

“… costs for Plant Vogtle have ballooned past $34 billion, the equivalent of $15,000/kW, making it the most expensive power plant ever built on earth.”

“… no, it’s not ‘litigation’ ‘anti-nuke greenies’ or ‘overburdened regulations’ that’s behind Plant Vogtle’s failures. It’s incompetence. Or let’s be charitable: Is this thing just too hard to build?” (Patty Durand, below)

Patty Durand, candidate for the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) in a special election this year, is running on a platform, “let’s regulate utilities better.” I would prefer her tag line to also be, ‘let’s remove franchise protection from Georgia Power and the rest of the Southern Company utilities for competition.’ But take whatever is available in a crony business/regulator state, long exposed by Jim Clarkson (here).

Candidate Durand is focused on the Plant Vogtle #3 and #4 boondoggle, long chronicled at MasterResource.…

Editor Update: Since this article was prepared, Southern Company (the parent of Georgia Power) announced another cost increase and delay.

“Since September 2018, the project budget has increased five times, and is now expected to total more than $30 billion [from $14 billion in 2009].”

The bad news continues at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle #3 and #4, the first nuclear units to be constructed in six years. The most complicated, expensive, and hazardous way to boil water, (government-enabled) nuclear remains a mirage of cost-effective engineering.

A project that broke ground in 2013, expected to cost $14 billion with start-up in 2016 (Unit 3) and 2017 (Unit 4), is now past $30 billion with estimated start dates in 2023/24. The U.S. Department of Energy has contributed loan guarantees of $12 billion to the project.…