Westinghouse to lead construction at Vogtle nuclear plant

Through an acquisition of CB&I nuclear construction business operations by Westinghouse, the latter has become the contractor over the construction project at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant, Georgia Power announced on Tuesday.

With this, owners of the plant -- Oglethorpe Power Corp., the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, Dalton Utilities and Georgia Power -- have agreed to settle term currently in litigation.

The company states that within this settlement is the inclusion of rates only being increased by an average of one percent on an annual basis until the completion of the Vogtle project. This transaction is not expected to impede the anticipated in-service dates, 2019 for Unit 3 and 2020 for Unit 4.

"This settlement is extremely positive for the Vogtle project and now the contractors can focus 100 percent on project execution," Buzz Miller, executive vice president of nuclear development for Georgia Power, said. "The agreement resolves current and pending disputes, reaffirms the current schedule and increases efficiencies by streamlining resource deployment with Westinghouse and its affiliates as the prime contractor over the Vogtle expansion."

The company reports that any settlement to be reached between owners and Westinghouse is subject to the CB&I business acquisition being finalized and completed.

Georgia Power is a subsidiary of Southern Company.