Weekly Plant Vogtle Update

At literally the 11th hour on Friday, Georgia Power(GPC) and its bankrupt nuclear reactor contractor Westinghouse Corporation agreed that GPC would take over as the primary contractor on the now behind schedule and over budget Nuclear Reactors Units 3 & 4 at Plant Vogtle. In doing so, GPC and Westinghouse have set a June 3rd deadline to complete the transition and get required regulatory approval. In the mean time, an interim agreement will remain in place in which Westinghouse will continue to act as the primary contractor on the construction. However, as was stated earlier, GPC will be required to obtain approval from regulators that already approved a stipulation this past December which requires that GPC earn a lower return on equity on the building of the plant should construction not be completed by December 2020 which it will not. Understanding the effect this stipulation will now have on their shareholders, GPC is expected to seek to have that stipulation modified to ensure that the rate payers shoulder more of the expect cost burden of the plant. When one considers the expected cost of completing the plant could total $14 Billion and less than $5B has been spent to date, there is significant upside rate risk to rate payers should they be permitted to modify the stipulation they agreed to. Is highly recommend that Georgia Power customers keep up with the issue by doing a simple Google search of Plant Vogtle or Westinghouse Bankruptcy.