A further delay is projected for Vogtle Units 3&4. This was recently disclosed at Southern Company’s yearly corporate earnings meeting.  

Unit 3 could now begin commercial operation in May or June, delayed from when it was projected to be the end of April.  Unit 4 also will be delayed, now projected sometime between November 2023 and March 2024. They previously projected commercial operation of Unit 4 by the end of 2023 at the latest.

The cost for the project is now projected at around $30 billion. Georgia Power owns 45.7% of the project, while Oglethorpe Power Corp. owns 30%, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia owns 22.7% and the city of Dalton owns 1.6%.

Georgia Power had already pushed back the startup of Unit 3 by a month after it discovered vibration of a backup cooling system pipe due to missing piping supports.  Those supports have now been installed, the company said, but Southern Company Chairman and CEO Tom Fanning told investors that “we found a few additional issues to address.”

“We will continue to take the time to get it right and will not sacrifice safety or quality to meet the schedule,” Fanning told investors during a conference last week.