Georgia Power announces long delayed Plant Vogtle expansion will continue to be pushed

In a press release today, Georgia Power announced that the long delayed Plant Vogtle expansion will be delayed even further. Unit 3, which has just finished a critical testing cycle, is now expected to be in service in the second quarter of 2022, and Unit 4 in the first quarter of 2023.

The press release acknowledges this is a three-to-four-month delay from the last projected start date. In early June, Georgia Power spokesperson Jeff Wilson told the Chronicle that they expected Unit 3 to be completed in January, and no later than the first quarter of 2022.

"We continue to learn every day on the project and our work over the last several months, including Hot Functional Testing, is no different," Wilson wrote in an email to the Chronicle on Thursday. "Our new projected schedule includes additional time and resources to complete the remaining work safely, with the highest standards of quality, and to factor in our most recent experiences with productivity and testing activities."

Unit 3 recently finished hot functional testing, where all systems are raised to their functional temperatures. The test was successful, but took longer than expected, which contributed to pushing back the completion dates. Southern Company now anticipates beginning to load fuel for Unit 3 toward the end of this year or early in 2021, and attributes delays on Unit 4 in part to slower workforce recovery after COVID reductions and difficulty retaining skilled labor.

Read more: https://www.augustachronicle.com/story/news/2021/07/29/georgia-power-plant-vogtle-expansion-delayed-months-southern-company/5414361001/