Billions of pounds of savings possible for Sizewell C

17 January 2018

Building a new nuclear power station in Suffolk could be billions of pounds cheaper than Hinkley, the new boss of energy giant EDF Energy has said.

Simone Rossi, chief executive of the French firm, said there could be a capital cost reduction of 20% for a proposed new plant at Sizewell.

Hinkley Point C, in Somerset, is set to cost £20 billion. Mr Rossi said work was "going well" with more than four million cubic metres of earth having been moved and huge sea water cooling pipes being installed.

It is set to produce its first unit of power by 2025.

The chief executive stressed the benefits that Sizewell would reap thanks to the work already going on at Hinkley.

Costs are set to be drastically reduced because the Suffolk plant will replicate much of the design and "doing something again with the same design makes it easier and cheaper".

"Hinkley Point C has eight emergency generators. They had to be designed and certified to meet the standards required for nuclear safety.

"That means the first two will cost £38 million, but the next six will be half the price. At Sizewell, none of that development or certification work needs to be done again. All its emergency generators will be at the lower price.

"Repeating that experience countless times for a power station at Sizewell that is largely identical to Hinkley Point C makes a capital cost reduction of 20% possible."This repetition extracts more value from everything that is happening at Hinkley Point C to restart the nuclear industry after the long gap since Sizewell B opened in 1994."

– SIMONE ROSSI, EDF ENERGY CHIEF EXECUTIVE

EDF Energy and its partner China General Nuclear Ltd propose to build and operate a new nuclear power station, Sizewell C, located to the north of the existing Sizewell B plant on the Suffolk coast, with two reactors capable of generating enough low carbon electricity to supply around five million homes.

The go-ahead for Sizewell C would see the guaranteed price paid for power from Hinkley Point drop from £92.50 per megawatt hour to £89.50/MWh.

Originally published at itv.com

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