EDF has postponed the expected start date for electricity generation at Hinkley Point C to June 2026 and revealed that construction of the new nuclear plant in Somerset may cost up to £23.7 billion, depending on whether further delays materialise.
When the government gave the final go-ahead in September 2016, the power station was expected to cost £18.1 billion to build and start generating electricity at the end of 2025.
EDF began pouring the first concrete for permanent structures in March 2017. The following month the company announced that the projected cost had already risen to £19.6 billion and that the first and second reactors could be delayed by 15 and 9 months respectively, adding a further £700 million to the price tag.
The company then announced in September 2019 that the estimated cost had risen once more to between £21.5 billion and £22.5 billion and that the risk of the aforementioned delays had also increased.
Following a further review of the schedule and costs to account for the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, EDF has now raised the projected cost by another £500 million to between £22 billion and £23 billion, whilst postponing the expected start date for generation to June 2026 at the earliest. It said the power station is anticipated to deliver an internal rate of return of between 7.1 per cent and 7.2 per cent on this basis.
It said there remains the possibility that overall delays of up to 15 months and 9 months to the first and second reactors could add another £700 million to the build cost, thereby lowering the internal rate of return by 0.3 per cent.
After the company came under fire for failing to protect its staff as the coronavirus pandemic emerged, EDF initially sent home around 2,000 of the roughly 4,500 onsite workers in March last year.
The company said it has nevertheless made “significant progress” on the power station during 2020. It said the latest figures it has released assume that it will be able to start ramping back up to normal site condition from the second quarter of 2021 and that the project is focused on lifting the dome onto the first reactor building at the end of 2022.