ATLANTA --- Georgia Power customers will see their electric bills rise beginning in 2011 to pay for the construction of two nuclear reactors under a bill signed into law Tuesday by Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Critics have slammed the bill as anti-consumer, arguing it will make ratepayers start footing the bill for the Plant Vogtle reactors at least six years before they go online. But supporters said customers will pay the costs either way and that the financing scheme will save money in the long run by shaving roughly $300 million off the expansion's $14 billion price tag.

The new law allows Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co., to begin to collect about $1.6 billion in financing and shareholder equity costs early. The project in Burke County is scheduled to be completed in 2017. It could be the first nuclear project to break ground in the country in three decades.

Under the new law, ratepayers will see their electric bills rise by an average of $1.30 a month in 2011. Those increases will gradually rise to an additional $9.10 a month in 2017.

Mr. Perdue's support for the measure had been expected. His chief of staff, Ed Holcombe, was the powerful utility's former chief lobbyist. And the governor told members of the state Public Service Commission in March that he would sign it.

"The governor believes in the numbers the company presented which show that over the term of the project it will be beneficial to Georgia Power customers," Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said Tuesday.

The state Public Service Commission has already signed off on the expansion and financing plans.

The expansion still must receive approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The financing bill was heavily lobbied at the state Capitol this session. Georgia Power signed on a fleet of top lobbyists to push the measure. Consumer groups enlisted advocate Clark Howard, who bashed the bill as bad for ratepayers. It was one of the first significant pieces of legislation to clear both chambers this year.

Alison Wall, the executive director of the consumer watchdog group Georgia Watch, predicted elected officials who supported the measure would feel a backlash from voters once their utility bills start to rise.

"This is a tax increase, pure and simple," Ms. Wall said.

Officials with Georgia Power said the financing plan eases the rate increase in gradually, rather than having customers see their bills jump sharply once construction is done. They say the new nuclear reactors are needed to meet the growing demand for energy in Georgia, which has seen its population explode in recent years.

Of the $1.6 billion in costs that Georgia Power wants customers to prepay, roughly $1 billion would go to company shareholders. The remainder would go to pay down debt costs. Company officials said the return paid to shareholders is required by investors for them to put their money into the nuclear project.

BACKGROUND: Southern Nuclear, like Georgia Power a subsidiary of Southern Co., has filed for an early site permit and applied for an operating license for two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, 26 miles from Augusta. Southern Nuclear hopes to get approval for an early site permit this year, which would allow the issuance of a combined construction and operating license as early as 2011. If construction goes as planned, the new reactors could go online in 2016 and 2017.

FINANCING

The cost of expansion is estimated at $14 billion. The law signed Tuesday allows Georgia Power to collect $1.6 billion in financing and shareholder equity costs from ratepayers.

Consumers will see their monthly electric bills go up by an average of: