By Peter Key

Georgia regulators Thursday voted to allow Georgia Power and its partners to complete the two nuclear reactors under construction at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro.

The state’s Public Service Commission unanimously approved a motion by Commissioner Tim Echols finding that the reactors, which would be the plant’s third and fourth generating units, should be completed.

The new units, like the rest of the plant, are jointly owned by Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities. In July, they became the only nuclear generating units still being built in the U.S. when SCANA and Santee Cooper canceled the expansion of the V.C. Summer plant in South Carolina after cost overruns related to both plants forced Westinghouse Electric, the prime contractor, to declare bankruptcy in March.

In a statement, Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers praised the commission’s decision, calling it “important for Georgia’s energy future and the United States.”

Echols’ motion was based on the assumption that Congress will extend nuclear production tax credits that would benefit the project. If it does not, the motion says, “the commission may reconsider the decision to go forward.”

The motion also reduces the approved revised capital cost forecast for construction of the units to $7.3 billion from $8.9 billion to reflect the parent guarantee payments that Toshiba, which owns Westinghouse, has made to Vogtle’s co-owners. Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co., said the payments, which totaled $3.68 billion, will reduce the cost of constructing the new units by $1.7 billion.

The motion does not impose a cost cap on the construction, but it also doesn’t guarantee recovery of all costs. It also reduces the return on equity used to calculate the costs Georgia Power and its partners are allowed to recover if Unit 3 is not operational by June 1, 2021, and on Unit 4 if it isn’t running by June 1, 2022. Georgia Power expects Unit 3 to be operational by November 2021 and Unit 4 by November 2022.