An unusual coalition that includes business groups, environmental activists, and New Jersey’s ratepayer advocate is urging lawmakers to reject a legislative proposal that would see residents pay for the construction of a new nuclear power plant years before it begins sending energy to the grid.
The bill, introduced last month during the final weeks of the Legislature’s current session, would add a mandatory charge on every ratepayer’s electricity bill to cover 5% of the projected construction costs of a to-be-constructed nuclear plant generating at least 1,100 megawatts of electricity.
Opponents said the risk to ratepayers is too great.
Provisions in the bill would allow developers to seek and obtain, as-of-right, ratepayer dollars to help pay for cost overruns not exceeding 20% of a project’s forecasted costs, and developers are permitted to seek ratepayer funds for larger increases with approval from the Board of Public Utilities.
The state would be hard-pressed to deny requests for larger cost overruns, especially those that come years into a project’s development, Silverman said. Those requests would put regulators in a difficult position: Pay more, or kill a project for which ratepayers have already supported with hundreds of millions — or even billions — of dollars.
Nuclear plant cost overruns aren’t unheard of, and they can be significant. Two nuclear units completed in Georgia in 2023 saw their cost balloon from a projected $14 billion to a realized $31 billion. Some estimates peg the cost as high as $37 billion. The units went online more than six years behind schedule.