A deal struck 17 years ago continues to see costs increase.
No one saw this coming when John Peyton was Mayor.
As the City Council mulls Jacksonville’s first $2 billion general fund budget, the local publicly owned utility notes a $2 billion-plus hit of its own.
Per a press release from JEA, officials at Tuesday’s Board meeting “provided a deep-dive into the history of Plant Vogtle, problems during construction years and financial impacts for JEA.”
“When JEA’s board voted to enter into the original Power Purchase Agreement for nuclear power in 2008, the estimated total project cost for Units 3 and 4 was approximately $15 billion, with JEA’s portion estimated at $1.4 billion. Due to numerous issues since then, the actual total cost escalated to over $36 billion, with JEA’s portion totaling approximately $3.5 billion,” the release continued.
As stated, the utility committed to buying power from Vogtle in 2008.
However, the relationship between customer and vendor wasn’t always smooth, as costs exceeded estimates. Delays piled up, and the utility’s credit rating suffered.
A few years back, when the controversial and now convicted former CEO Aaron Zahn was in control, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dismissed JEA’s request to intervene in an ongoing dispute with the Municipal Electrical Authority of Georgia over Plant Vogtle construction costs.
JEA’s annual debt service for Vogtle exceeds $170 million, per the release.
Under the agreement with MEAG, JEA will receive 206 MW for 20 years (through 2043 for Unit 3 and 2044 for Unit 4).
Rates continue to rise periodically. But JEA said this year it “expects to continue to offer the lowest overall utility costs among major cities across Florida.”
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