Southeast Whitfield drops first region game in back-and-forth matchup

DALTON, Ga. — A new agreement among the owners of the Plant Vogtle nuclear plant will leave Dalton Utilities in a better position financially if Vogtle’s troubled two new units continue to go over budget, according to utility officials.

On Thursday, the utility’s board approved a revised agreement that will see Georgia Power, Vogtle’s largest owner and the construction project manager since the 2017 bankruptcy of former manager Westinghouse, shoulder a larger share of costs if the $17.1 billion project continues to go over budget.

Dalton Utilities owns 1.6 percent of Vogtle. Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent, MEAG (the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia) owns 22.7 percent and Oglethorpe Power owns 30 percent.

When Georgia Power announced in August another $2.3 billion in cost overruns, that triggered an agreement calling for all four owners to vote to continue the project. Dalton Utilities, Georgia Power and MEAG agreed to continue. But Oglethorpe said it would only continue if there was a cap on construction costs, which would effectively require Georgia Power to cover any additional overruns.

“George Power would not agree to a hard cap,” said Dalton Utilities CEO Tom Bundros.

But the two co-owners reached a compromise, which the other owners must also sign off on.

Under the agreement, if cost overruns become big enough, Georgia Power would bear a share of those costs larger than it would have previously. The larger the overruns, the larger the proportion Georgia Power would pay.

“To be clear, Georgia Power’s share of the costs would grow, not its share of ownership,” said Dalton Utilities board chairman Joe Yarbrough.

But if the costs grow too large, the agreement creates an option for the other owners to sell their shares to Georgia Power.

“I believe that (Georgia Power) had a desire and an obligation to manage it well before,” said Yarbrough. “But this legal agreement certainly puts them in a position where they have more at stake to make sure the costs are managed as well as they possibly can be.”

City Council member Gary Crews, the council’s liaison to Dalton Utilities, said he believes the agreement further protects the city-owned utility.

“The management of Dalton Utilities has really done their due diligence, and going forward this should protect our assets as well as the city of Dalton and our stakeholders,” he said.