Following successful permitting, the company plans to build a two-unit, 1,200 MW combined cycle plant in Monroe County. The facility would be on land already owned by Oglethorpe Power and adjacent to the Smarr Energy Facility, another gas-fired plant. Oglethorpe claimed the new addition would be the “highest-performing, lowest-emitting and most efficient natural gas plants in the state.” Total capital investment would be approximately $2 billion, the company reported.

In Talbot County, Oglethorpe would also build a simple-cycle combustion turbine unit at an existing plant. This new approximately 240 MW peaking unit, which would be the seventh at the Talbot Energy Facility, would have dual-fuel capability. The development of this new unit would represent a capital investment of approximately $360 million.

More details on the projects’ construction and timelines would be available after permits are received, Oglethorpe said.

Oglethorpe Power continues activity in Georgia, where it recently acquired Walton County Power, a 465 MW, three-unit combustion turbine generation facility in the city of Monroe. The facility was purchased from Mackinaw Power Holdings, an affiliate of the global investment firm, The Carlyle Group. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

U.S. natural gas-fired power generation is expected to grow faster than it has in years. Recent Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs) indicate that utilities are planning for the largest increase in gas plants in over a decade, with the years 2028 and 2030 expecting dramatic increases in renewable energy usage to balance and maintain grid reliability.

Oglethorpe Power is acquiring two generating units at Washington County Power, a four-unit, 660 MW gas-fired plant in Sandersville, Georgia.

The sale agreement was with Gulf Pacific Power, which is managed by Harbert Management Corporation. Financial terms of the deal were not shared.

Oglethorpe Power said the two GE units, totaling about 330 MW, are permitted for dual-fuel capability and in the future could be modified to run on either natural gas or diesel fuel. Washington County Power entered commercial operation in 2003.

This would be Oglethorpe Power’s sixth acquisition of natural gas-fired generation in Georgia over the last 13 years, totaling more than 3,000 MW. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2022.

Nuclear operators and technicians are now moving fuel into Plant Vogtle Unit 3 as the nuclear generating unit moves closer to entering service.

During fuel load, technicians and operators from Westinghouse and Southern Nuclear are scheduled to transfer 157 fuel assemblies one-by-one from the Unit 3 spent fuel pool to the unit’s reactor core.

Startup testing will begin next and is designed to demonstrate operation of the primary coolant system and steam supply system at design temperature and pressure. Operators will also bring the plant from cold shutdown to initial criticality, synchronize the unit to the electric grid and systematically raise power to 100%. Southern Nuclear will operate the new unit.

The fuel load process marks a milestone toward startup and commercial operation. Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4, representing 2,200 MW, are the first to be built in the U.S. in more than three decades. 

Reaching the milestone hasn’t been easy: Cost overruns and construction problems have delayed the project. Project partners have disputed over rising construction costs and their stake in the venture. Vogtle Unit 3 is currently expected to come online by the end of the first quarter of 2023, and Unit 4 is expected at the end of 2023.

Oglethorpe Power gave a more specific target operation date of March 2023, pending the results from testing.

“We are one step closer to bringing Unit 3 online to deliver emission-free, reliable baseload energy… for the next 60 to 80 years,” said Oglethorpe Power President and CEO Michael Smith. 

In August, The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) authorized Southern Nuclear to begin fuel loading at Vogtle Unit 3.

The unit is the first reactor to reach this stage under the NRC’s combined license process. The decision moved the 1,117 MW AP1000 generating unit out of NRC construction monitoring and into the regulatory body’s operating reactor oversight process.

FILL’ER UP: @GeorgiaPower announces fuel loading at Vogtle Unit 3 has begun! @WECNuclear & @SouthernNuclear are scheduled to load 157 fuel assemblies into the reactor core.

Unit 3 is projected to enter service in the first quarter of 2023.

Learn more: https://t.co/Ma1bHgXcCh pic.twitter.com/nUgF3euice

— Office of Nuclear Energy (@GovNuclear) October 14, 2022

In July 2022, Southern Nuclear told the NRC that it had completed all inspections, tests, analyses and acceptance criteria needed to show Vogtle Unit 3 is ready for operation.

The milestone came with the receipt of the NRC’s so-called 103(g) finding, which signified that the new unit has been constructed and will be operated in conformance with the Combined License and NRC regulations.

During fuel load, technicians and operators from Westinghouse and Southern Nuclear are scheduled to transfer 157 fuel assemblies one-by-one from the Unit 3 spent fuel pool to the unit’s reactor core.

Plant Vogtle is located near Waynesboro in eastern Georgia near the South Carolina border and is jointly owned by Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe Power Corporation (30%), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%) and Dalton Utilities (1.6%).

The dispute pits Oglethorpe Power Corp. and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG) against Georgia Power, a unit of Atlanta-based Southern Company.

The two claim that cost increases related to the new nuclear units have triggered clauses in a 2018 ownership agreement. Those clauses allegedly would shift construction cost responsibility above a certain level to Georgia Power. They also claim the right to give up some of their ownership stake in the Alvin W. Vogtle Units 3 and 4 project.

The lawsuit was filed June 18 in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia.

A primary issue for the court is to determine the starting dollar amount used to figure cost increases that are subject to a shift in responsibility to Georgia Power. Also in dispute are ownership tender provisions and the extent to which COVID-19-related expenses impact cost calculations.

In a statement, MEAG Power said it believes that the construction cost increases and revised cost estimate to complete the nuclear units have reached threshold levels that also triggered the tender provisions agreed to in 2018 when the project partners voted to continue work on the nuclear power units.

Power Engineering reported on June 20 that Oglethorpe Power Corp. (OPC) elected to use its one-time option to freeze its capital costs for Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 construction costs.

In exchange, Oglethorpe said it would hand over to Georgia Power around 42 MW of its ownership share in the nuclear project. Oglethorpe’s original share was 660 MW, meaning that after the tender it would have a 28% share of the project, down from 30%.

In an email to Power Engineering, a Georgia Power spokesperson said that the utility and Oglethorpe “have a difference of opinion over the dollar amount” at which the tender option is triggered. “We continue to have a difference of opinion and Georgia Power does not believe OPC’s tender notice is valid,” the spokesperson said.

Cost overruns and construction problems have delayed the project, the first nuclear units to come online in the United States since 2016. Vogtle Unit 3 is currently expected to come online by the end of 2023 Q1, and Unit 4 is expected at the end of 2023. Each unit is rated at 1,114 MW.

Vogtle is jointly owned by Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities.

In 2018, coinciding with a vote to continue building the project, the four co-owners jointly agreed to a cost-sharing agreement designed to mitigate financial risk from future potential cost increases.

Under that agreement, if total sharable project costs rose by $2.1 billion from the time the agreement was executed, each co-owner, other than Georgia Power, could exercise a one-time option to freeze its capital investment in the project.

Since September 2018, the project budget has increased five times, and is now expected to total more than $30 billion.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Oglethorpe Power said that the Global Amendments “do not exclude” costs resulting from force majeure events (such as COVID-19) from calculation. It said that it told Georgia Power in March of the dispute, triggering dispute resolution procedures. Once those efforts ended, Oglethorpe and MEAG filed suit in a bid to enforce compliance with their interpretation of the agreement.

This article was updated June 23 to include a statement from Georgia Power.