Georgia Power issued the following announcement on May 10.
Georgia Power announced today the latest milestones at the Vogtle nuclear expansion near Waynesboro, Georgia. Over the past week, workers placed the four main step-up transformers, each weighing 420,000 pounds, inside the Unit 4 transformer bays located near the unit's turbine building. The transformers will increase the voltage produced by the turbine generators from 26,000 volts to 500,000 volts before the energy flows to the state's power grid to serve hundreds of thousands of customers. Teams also completed a significant concrete placement inside the Unit 4 containment vessel, clearing the path for installation of the first floor module for the unit, CA32.
Vogtle 3 & 4 aerial view as of Spring 2018.
Other recent milestones at the site include the placement of the second floor module for the Unit 3 operating deck, CA56. This module is part of the steel floor that sits above the In-Containment Refueling Water Storage Tank (IRWST). The IRWST is a 75,300-cubic-foot tank that, once the units are operational, is filled with borated water and is a key safety feature within containment providing automatic, gravity-fed backup cooling for the reactor vessel.
With more than 6,000 construction workers onsite today, the Vogtle nuclear expansion is the largest job-producing project in the state of Georgia. The thousands of workers onsite every day continue to focus on safety and productivity with the target in-service dates for the units remaining November 2021 (Unit 3) and November 2022 (Unit 4), according to the 18th Vogtle Construction Monitoring (VCM) Report.
Savings & Benefits for Customers
From the beginning of the Vogtle expansion, Georgia Power has worked with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) to pursue all available benefits for customers and minimize the impact of the new units on electric bills. The company's 18th Vogtle Construction Monitoring Report noted a revised, lower projected rate impact for customers of 9.8 percent with approximately half of this impact already in place on bills. This projected rate impact is well below original projections of approximately 12 percent thanks to new federal tax laws, anticipated customer benefits from federal production tax credits, interest savings from loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the fuel savings of nuclear energy.
Additionally, $75 in total 2018 bill credits, or $188 million overall, were approved by the Georgia PSC as part of its order to continue construction of Vogtle 3&4 in December 2017. Georgia Power issued the first $25 credit in April and plans to issue the second credit in July. The credits are a direct result of parent guarantee payments for the project from Toshiba available due to the strength of the original contract for the project and protections in place for Georgia electric customers. Click here to read more.
Follow the progress being made at the project with new photos added to the Plant Vogtle 3 & 4 Online Photo Gallery.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Georgia Power
Alerts Sign-up