Four months after contractor Westinghouse Electric Co. filed for bankruptcy protection because of more than $6 billion in losses, the South Carolina utilities funding the V.C. Summer nuclear expansion project announced they are abandoning the project.

SCANA CORP.的一部分南卡罗来纳州电气和天然气宣布，由于不确定的联邦生产税抵免额以及东芝公司的预期担保和解付款金额，完成这两个单元的昂贵。

该公用事业公司说：“基于这些因素，SCE＆G得出结论，继续建设该项目并不符合其客户和其他利益相关者的最大利益。”

南卡罗来纳州公共服务局（Santee Cooper）拥有该项目45％的股份，他也单独宣布了其停工的建设。根据SCE＆G的说法，Santee Cooper表示，它不会考虑仅完成两个正在建设的单元之一的选择。

According to Santee Cooper, "The decision to suspend construction is based in large part on a comprehensive analysis of detailed schedule and cost data, from both project contractor Westinghouse Electric Co. and subcontractor Fluor Corp., first revealed after Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy in March."

迄今为止，Santee Cooper在该项目中的份额花费了约47亿美元的建筑和利息。该公用事业公司指出：“分析表明，该项目要等到2024年，即Westinghouse最新完成日期之后的四年，最终将使Santee Cooper客户总计114亿美元。”

Final Project Construction Cost: $8 Billion

该公用事业公司的分析假设Westinghouse拒绝了其在破产程序中的EPC合同，将其自身建筑的最终成本定为80亿美元的建设成本，利息约为34亿美元。18luck.cub

Santee Cooper首席执行官Lonnie Carter说：“在Westinghouse破产并预计拒绝固定价格合同之后，最佳情况表明该项目将迟到几年，比原先计划的75％。”“我们根本不能要求我们的客户为已经变得不经济的项目付费。尽管暂停建筑是他们的最佳选择，但我们对我们的承包商未能履行其义务并将Santee Cooper和我们的客户纳入其中感到失望。情况。”

"Generation diversity remains an important strategy for Santee Cooper, but the costs of these units are simply too much for our customers to bear," added Leighton Lord, chairman of the Santee Cooper board of directors.

With Santee Cooper pulling out from the project, SCANA had little choice but to go along, stated Chairman Kevin Marsh.

"Many factors outside our control have changed since inception of this project," Marsh said in a statement. "Chief among them, the bankruptcy of our primary construction contractor, Westinghouse, eliminated the benefits of the fixed-price contract to our customers, investors and other stakeholders.

"Ultimately," Marsh added, "our project co-owner Santee Cooper's decision to suspend construction made clear that proceeding on our own would not be economically feasible. Ceasing work on the project was our least desired option, but this is the right thing to do at this time." Also, SCE&G and SCANA could not justify completing just one unit without Santee Cooper's participation.

Just four days earlier, on July 27, SCE&G and SCANA had announced a definitive agreement with Toshiba Corp. for Toshiba to pay $2.168 billion to satisfy its guarantee of obligations under Westinghouse's engineering, procurement and construction contract. That announcement noted that the $2.168 billion is "payable regardless of whether both or either of the two nuclear units are completed, or the project is abandoned."

Opponents Applaud

Project opponents were pleased by the halting of work at V.C. Summer. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Columbia, S.C., stated, "We applaud Santee Cooper and SCE&G for making the right decision to protect their customers. This project has been a multibillion-dollar disaster. We also call on Georgia Power and their utility partners to protect their customers from the similarly risky, mismanaged project in Georgia at Southern Company's Plant Vogtle."

In a statement from the Friends of the Earth, Tom Clements stated, "The decision to abandon the V.C. Summer project is of monumental proportion and is a full admission that pursuit of the project was a fool's mission right from the start. … To reduce the ongoing blow to SCE&G ratepayers already paying 18% of the bill just to pay for project financing, it's time for money to be refunded as it was collected from them under the false pretense that advance payment for the nuclear project was sound."

What Next for Georgia's Plant Vogtle?

The abandonment of the South Carolina project turns the spotlight to Georgia, where the future of Westinghouse's other big nuclear contract—a sister project at Plant Vogtle—remains undecided. In response to the V.C. Summer announcement, Georgia PSC Chairman Stan Wise issued a statement aimed at highlighting the "dissimilarities" of the two projects.

"First, the rate impact is spread across over three times as many customers at Georgia Power Company versus South Carolina Electric & Gas," Wise noted.

"Second, the overall rate impact of the Plant Vogtle expansion in Georgia of less than 5% thus far has been significantly lower than the current 18% residential customer impact reported by SCE&G," he added. "Third, the Toshiba parental guarantee, which reduces the total customer impact, is $3.7 billion for the Vogtle project versus $2.2 billion for the Summer project. Last, there are four co-owners underwriting the Georgia effort, whereas Santee Cooper is the only co-owner in South Carolina. These factors suggest the Plant Vogtle project may be in a better position to move forward than the project in South Carolina."

Wise added that he intends to seek a final decision from Georgia Power about the Vogtle project by the end of the year.