Dive Brief:
- Southern Co is hoping to announce more planned nuclear facilities by the end of 2014, according to their CEO Tom Fanning.
- Fanning said another project would be designed like the Georgia Vogtle power plant project with two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, each with 1,150 MW capacity.
- The company is looking at six possible sites, though Fanning declined to say where. The company is considering existing plants and greenfields as possible sites.
Dive Insight:
Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power's Vogtle project is under construction at one of the company's existing power plants, but has suffered a number of delays trying to get finished due to permits and licensing laws. The project's budget is currently over $14 billion, far beyond initial estimates. But if all goes according to plan, the first new unit will come online at the end of 2017 and the second will follow a year later. "Progress on the project continues to move along just beautifully, although there will always be challenges," Fanning noted.
Fanning also announced that Southern Co. would soon detail its involvement in a "commercial venture in storage." The company previously said it was interested in investing in large utility-scale energy storage, including compressed air systems. Fanning said Southern is considering buying power from another entity at a low price point, storing it with the as-yet-unnamed technology and using it during periods of peak demand to keep power costs low for the company and customers.
