Unit 4 at Plant Vogtle is officially in commercial operation, coming online nine months after the completion of Unit 3 at the plant south of Augusta. Unit 4 can produce enough electricity to power an estimated 500,000 homes and businesses. The project originally was due to be completed in 2016 and 2017 but encountered a series of delays that drove up the cost to more than double the $14 billion anticipated when the Georgia Public Service Commission signed off on the work in 2009. The PSC voted late last year to let Georgia Power pass on to customers almost $7.6 billion of the project’s costs.
Representatives of environmental and consumer groups have complained about the costs of the reactors but Georgia Power executives countered that nuclear energy is the only zero-emission baseload energy source available today – offering high reliability around the clock. Last year, nuclear energy produced at plants Vogtle and Hatch provided more than 25% of Georgia Power’s electrical generation.
