8 Jul (NucNet): The total budgeted lifetime cost for the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in southern England is estimated at close to £37bn (€43bn, $48bn), according to an assessment of major projects published yesterday by the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC).
The document, based on data from September 2015 said the total lifetime cost for the project is determined by the difference between the strike price for Hinkley Point C and the long-term wholesale electricity price on the market.
The current Hinkley Point contract for difference (CfD) guarantees a strike price of £92.50 per megawatt-hour, higher than the average wholesale price of electricity in the UK. DECC said they expect the total lifetime cost of the project to vary year on year due to market fluctuations.
DECC also said that from 2014 to 2015 their projections of wholesale electricity prices fell due to underlying low fossil fuel prices and this resulted in a hike of the total lifetime cost for Hinkley Point C.
According to reports in local media, unnamed officials at DECC have said that the £37bn figure was provisional and based on the low set in wholesale power prices in September 2015.
The Guardian quotes a DECC spokesperson as saying that the report “does not suggest that the lifetime costs of Hinkley [Point C] have increased”, but represents a “snapshot of the position at the end of September 2015.”
Recently, state-controlled French utility EDF said it was ready to take a final investment decision on building two new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point C despite Britain's referendum vote to quit the European Union.
Details are online: http://bit.ly/29FVXqN
