In a dispute involving an ill-fated plan to build nuclear reactors in Levy County, a federal judge said Duke Energy is not required to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to a company that designs and constructs nuclear plants.
Westinghouse Electric Co. initially sought to require Duke to pay $512.6 million for terminating a contract for the Levy County project, though Westinghouse later reduced that total by about $130 million.
But U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn Jr. ruled Thursday that Duke is only required to pay a $30 million termination fee and about $4.25 million in interest.
Duke said in 2013 it was shelving plans to build the Levy County project, which had been started by predecessor company Progress Energy before a merger.
The project was controversial, at least in part because of a 2006 state law that allowed the utility to collect pre-construction costs from customers each year without any guarantee the reactors would be built.
Cogburn, who is a federal judge in North Carolina, where Duke is based, issued a 29-page ruling that said the case focused on the Levy project and the utility’s involvement in an industry consortium that backed Westinghouse efforts to develop a “cutting edge” type of nuclear plant.
Progress Energy entered into the consortium with two other utilities in 2007 to financially back the development of what is known as Westinghouse’s AP1000 Standard Plant design.
In 2008, Progress entered a separate agreement with Westinghouse to design and build two reactors in Levy County — a project that was expected to use the AP1000 design.
Cogburn wrote that Progress, as early as 2010, informed Westinghouse it was contemplating the possible termination of the Levy County contract.