The Florida utility suing one of the partners in the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion to get out of the long-delayed, over-budget project has come up with two alternatives for buying the power it would otherwise receive from Vogtle.
But officials with the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG) say Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) committed to buying 206 megawatts of electricity in a power purchasing agreement from MEAG when construction began on the Vogtle expansion and can't legally back out now.
In a letter to MEAG dated Tuesday, JEA board Chairman G. Alan Howard revealed that JEA has secured two firm offers from other suppliers, one for the 206 megawatts it was planning to buy from MEAG, and a second for 294 megawatts, enough that MEAG could join the power purchasing agreement with JEA if the Georgia-based utility decides to abandon the Plant Vogtle expansion.
"The capacity and energy ... is to be supplied by a proven and fully operational generating facility located in Georgia," Howard wrote. "It does not depend on unproven technology and is not subject to construction completion risk."
But Pete Degnan, senior vice president and general counsel for MEAG, said MEAG only agreed to a 22.7 percent share of the Vogtle expansion with Georgia Power Co. and two other utilities because JEA pledged to buy a significant portion of the power MEAG committed to as a direct partner in the project.
"From Day One, we told everybody we talked to, 'You have to take the construction risks,' " Degnan said Tuesday. "From Day One, JEA agreed to that. ... We would not be in this project at 22.7 percent if JEA had not committed to this contract."
JEA is suing MEAG seeking to void the contract, citing estimated costs for building two additional units at Plant Vogtle that have soared from an original $14.5 billion estimate when the project was approved in 2009 to more than $30 billion (based on JEA's estimates).
In the letter, Howard claims JEA customers would save more than $1.1 billion if the project is abandoned and JEA buys 206 megawatts of electricity elsewhere. Going with the 294 megawatts alternative that would include MEAG participation in buying power from an alternative source would save ratepayers more than $2.5 billion, Howard wrote.
The letter urges MEAG board members to vote to abandon the Vogtle expansion. Board members of Georgia Power, MEAG and the other two partners in the Vogtle expansion – Oglethorpe Power Corp. and Dalton Utilities – are due to vote by the end of this month whether to complete or abandon the project.
If they stay the course with Vogtle, the latest schedule calls for the first of the two new reactors to go into service in November 2021. The second unit would follow a year later.
