The UK is now aiming for SMR and Sizewell C decisions in spring 2025.

Thursday, October 31, 2024

There are currently four technology providers shortlisted for small modular reactors (SMRs) in the UK. It is expected that two of them will be selected to receive government support for the deployment of several power units at the selected site. These include GE-Hitachi, Holtec Britain, Rolls-Royce SMR and Westinghouse Electric Company.

The aim was to complete the selection process this year, but the Labor government’s first budget since taking office in July said “final decisions will be made in the spring”. Great British Nuclear (GBN), the independent body leading the process, added that it had issued an invitation to the four companies to negotiate “after which they will be invited to submit final tenders, which GBN will then assess.”

Gwen Parry Jones, CEO of Great British Nuclear, said: “Our selection of SMR is on the right track to provide Britain with new nuclear energy for the next decade and beyond. We look forward to completing this complex and innovative procurement in the coming months.”

Meanwhile, a separate commercial document for GBN was published earlier this week which suggests that the procurement of a project delivery partner for each selected SMR technology supplier will be at an “estimated contract value” over 10 years of £600-800 million ($778). million-1.04 billion US dollars). It lists an estimated procurement start date of 2025 and a contract start date of September 2026. In a separate £200 million contract for ‘Plant Balance – Manufacture, Supply, Installation’, procurement is estimated to begin in 2028, with the contract period beginning in 2030. .

Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the UK Nuclear Industry Association, said: “While it is great to see the UK SMR competition reaching this stage, it is critical that a decision is made as soon as possible, without any further delay to the published timetable. Confidence in the UK Government’s announcements of support for the SDF are based on the commitments made today. This is vital for confidence in the supply chain, as well as for driving wider nuclear ambitions. The government must give Great British Nuclear the ability to buy more sites, starting with Heysham, so we can. delivering the SMR fleet for clean, reliable UK energy and good, skilled jobs.”

Sizewell S

The UK plans to increase its nuclear power capacity to 24 GW by 2050. In addition to SMRs, there are also ambitious targets for new mammoth-scale power stations, the first of which is being built at Hinkley Point C. A copy of this diagram with two EPR power units. planned in Sizewell C.

In the budget, in which the UK government sets out its tax plans and outlines many spending priorities, it gives an update on the Sizewell C project, saying: “New nuclear energy will play an important role in helping the UK achieve energy security and clean technology.” . authorities, while providing thousands of good, skilled jobs. The agreement provides £2.7 billion of funding to continue development of Sizewell C until 2025-26. The process of raising equity capital and debt for the project will soon enter the final stage and will be completed in 2025. In the spring, as with other large multi-year commitments, the final investment decision to proceed with the project will be made at the second stage of the spending review.”

In September it was announced that the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero’s Sizewell C (Devex) Development Expenditure Scheme would receive grants of up to £5.5 billion towards the final investment decision, with support provided under the scheme mainly consists of share capital. UK government injections.

The EDF-led plan is that Sizewell C will be equipped with two EPRs producing 3.2 GW of electricity, enough to power approximately six million homes for at least 60 years. It will be a similar design to the two-unit power station being built at Hinckley Point C in Somerset, with the aim of building it faster and at lower cost using experience gained from the first new nuclear power plant project in the US. Britain for about three decades.

The UK government is seeking investment in the Sizewell C project, having launched pre-qualification of potential investors as the first stage of its capital raising process in September last year. He also passed legislation through Parliament to allow a new way to finance new major infrastructure projects – a regulated asset base (RAB) financing model, which allows consumers to contribute to the cost of new nuclear power plants during the construction phase. Under previous contracts for difference, system developers finance the construction of a nuclear project and begin receiving revenue only when the plant begins generating electricity.