Georgia Ratepayers Continue Paying Vogtle Nuclear Expansion Costs Two Years After Completion

Two years after the newest reactors at Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia came online, the state's utility customers continue to shoulder the financial burden of the project through approved rate increases even as the units underperform compared with older reactors on the same site.

Construction on the expansion began in 2009 as the first new nuclear project in the United States in decades. It was originally expected to finish by 2017 at a cost of about $14 billion. The project ultimately completed in 2024 at a final cost of $36.8 billion, making it the most expensive power project in U.S. history.

The expansion was led by Georgia Power and a group of smaller utilities to meet rising electricity demand while adding carbon-free generation. The company hired Westinghouse Electric Co. to design and build the reactors using its AP1000 technology, which had not previously been deployed in the United States.

Construction faced repeated setbacks including wiring problems, faulty components and defects in parts built offsite. In 2017, with costs mounting, Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy protection and the utilities took over construction. Georgia regulators had the opportunity to halt the project that year after a similar effort in South Carolina was abandoned but chose to proceed.

Between 2009 and 2024, Georgia Power customers paid a monthly construction surcharge that added up to more than $1,000 for some households. After the reactors entered service the surcharge ended, but regulators approved base rate increases of about $15 per month for a typical residential customer to recover remaining costs over decades.

Electricity bills in the state have risen more than 20 percent while the two new units increased the company's generating capacity by just over 7 percent, according to a watchdog report. Early data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration since 2023 shows the new units are underperforming compared with the site's older reactors, which began operating in the 1970s.

Because the project finished years behind schedule, its ability to offset costs through electricity generation was delayed.

Disconnections among Georgia Power customers rose as rate increases took effect, with Black households disproportionately affected. “The biggest failure was not the construction—it was the failure to protect ratepayers,” said Kim Scott, executive director of Georgia WAND.

” >"The biggest failure was not the construction—it was the failure to protect ratepayers. " — Kim Scott, executive director of Georgia WAND (Inside Climate News) Patty Durand, founder of Georgians for Affordable Energy, said the lessons of Vogtle should give pause to policymakers elsewhere.

Both advocates recently traveled to New York to warn against repeating Georgia's experience. Nuclear power continues to struggle to compete with solar and wind even at lower projected costs, Durand added. In the same period that Vogtle's Units 3 and 4 brought just over 2 gigawatts of new capacity online, Texas added more than 40 gigawatts of solar for roughly $50 billion in investment.

Industry representatives argue that costs could decline as the sector rebuilds its workforce and supply chains after the first-of-a-kind AP1000 builds. They point to growing demand for electricity and global competition, particularly in China where reactors are being built at significantly lower cost.

Recent projects in the United States have shifted toward smaller, advanced reactors expected to be cheaper and faster to construct. Developers are pursuing such designs in Wyoming and Tennessee, including a project expected to generate about 50 megawatts.

Yet interest extends to larger designs as well. States including Illinois, New Jersey and West Virginia have lifted longstanding bans on new nuclear construction, while governors in New England have agreed to explore the technology and New York has directed agencies to plan for expanded nuclear development.

“Cheap nuclear power is always 10 years away,” Durand said.

Japan, a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant under construction since 1993 in the village of Rokkasho has seen its completion date pushed back 27 times. With less than a year remaining until the current target at the end of March 2027, the company is engaged in extended discussions with regulators.

The governor of Aomori Prefecture has stated that the completion will definitely be delayed again, while the chief cabinet secretary has said the deadline remains unchanged. The facility is a key component of the country's nuclear energy policy.