Pandemic pushed up UK nuclear project costs by £500m, says EDF
French energy giant EDF has revised its estimate for the cost of the UK's Hinkley Point C, the under-construction nuclear power plant in England's south-west, citing delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The group, which is financing the plant's construction along with China's CGN, has added a further £500 million (€566 million) to the project's expected costs and also pushed back the start date to 2026.
EDF now estimates the Somerset-based project to cost as much as £23 billion (€26 billion). However, the costs included in this price are based on 2015 figures meaning the real figure is likely to higher when inflation is taken into account.
Read more: EDF under pressure as workers' strike again
The group said that the UK can expect Hinkley Point C to start producing its first energy in late 2025. It has not been able to catch up with the backlog of work on the project that has accumulated since last year's lockdown.
“Ten months after it began, we are still facing the full force of the pandemic,” said Stuart Crooks, managing director of Hinkley Point C.
“Even though experience has allowed us to increase numbers on-site during the pandemic from below 2,000 to more than 5,000, social distancing requirements still limit the number of people we can safely have on-site at any one time,” he said.
Crooks added that “a longer construction period also adds some cost — as does the reduced efficiency of operating a site for a long period under Covid-19 conditions”.
He added that the extra costs would not be passed on to UK consumers though did not say how they would be covered, or who would foot the bill.
Hinkley Point C is the UK's first new nuclear power station in a generation and one of three in Europe in which EDF is using its next-generation European Pressurised Reactor technology. The other two, the Olkiluoto power plant in Finland and Flamanville in France, have also been beset by budget overruns and long delays.
The UK government struck a deal with EDF in 2013 which guaranteed the megawatt price of £92.50 for energy produced at Hinkley Point C in exchange for the project's construction costs being covered by the French energy firm.
The government's price guarantee is index-linked and lasts for 35 years - something that has been used by opponents of nuclear power, who argue that other forms of energy generation such as offshore wind are cheaper.
Read more: UK enters talks to fund Sizewell C nuclear plant
Former EDF UK chief executive Vincent de Rivaz one said that people in Britain would have power from Hinkley C in 2017.
The French company is in talks with the UK government to build another plant, Sizewell C in Suffolk, although executives have made clear that a different financing model will be required for construction.
Ministers are examining taking a direct stake in Sizewell C as well as using a “regulated asset base” model that would involve consumers paying upfront through their energy bills.
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