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EDF Energy wants Britain to fix the market if it builds nuclear plants - Times Online
British families could be forced to pay up to £227 extra on their annual energy bills to help to fund a new generation of nuclear power stations under plans proposed by the French company expected to build most of them.
EDF Energy, which wants to build four reactors in Britain at a cost of about £20 billion, was accused of holding the Government to ransom last night, after an executive told The Times that none would be built unless the Government agreed to underwrite part of the cost. Speaking before a government announcement on Britain’s energy future on Monday, Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, managing director of EDF Energy’s new nuclear business in Britain, said the nuclear programme would proceed only if the Government ensured that consumers paid more for electricity from fossil fuels, such as coal and gas, which is cheaper but produces more greenhouse gas, making nuclear more competitive.
Nuclear power: The consumer always pays | Environment | The Guardian
Model for new UK reactors reveals damaging disagreements between Finland and French contractors
From the outside, there is nothing unusual about the warehouse by the offices on Finland's Olkiluoto island, site of what should have been the world's first modern nuclear reactor. But inside, stacked on five kilometres of shelving, are 160,000 documents. "If a valve for the reactor is changed, it comes in a small box and a van full of documents," complains Jouni Silvennoinen, project director for Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), the Finnish utility that ordered the plant from the Franco-German consortium Areva-Siemens.
The paper mountain helps explain why the reactor, which should have cost €3bn (£2.72bn) and been working this year, will now miss its revised completion date of mid-2012 and will cost at least €5.3bn. In the latest delay, Finland's nuclear safety regulator halted welding on the reactor last week and criticised poor oversight by the sub-contractor, supplier and TVO.
PSC chairman says he’s no FPL puppet – Capitol Comments - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Sarasota, FL - Archive
The sideshow at the Public Service Commission is overtaking the historic consideration of a rate increase for Florida Power & Light. Today, PSC chairman Matthew Carter took the unusual step of offering a press release proclaiming his independence from utility lobbyists. It seems unusual for a commissioner who is considering a rate increase from a utility to specifically note his votes against that utility in the past.
Here is Carter’s statement, (and see below for FPL comment):
Assertions have been made that the Florida Public Service Commission is too “cozy” with regulated utilities, FPL in particular. To the extent that these criticisms are directed toward me, I take great offense because they are false.
An examination of the record, not some special interest’s characterizations, demonstrates my independence and freedom from external bias. In nearly every high-profile issue that FPL has brought before this Commission, I have voted to deny or severely limit the company’s request.
SCE&G seeks rate hike related to new reactors
South Carolina Electric & Gas, or SCE&G, is seeking a 1.1% increase to its electric rates under a state law that allows annual rate adjustments during construction of power reactors. SCE&G and state-owned utility Santee Cooper are planning to build two Westinghouse AP1000s at the Summer site. The state's Base Load Review Act, passed in 2007, allows for annual adjustments to rates during reactor construction as a way to recover project financing costs.
Hearings set on electric rates, nuclear recovery fee
Area residents will have a chance to speak out on Progress Energy Florida electric rates and a controversial electricity charge at public forums to be held this summer.
Nine hearings are planned, according to the state's Office of Public Counsel, which represents consumers before the Florida Public Service Commission.
The main focus will concern Progress Energy base rates that would go into effect in 2010, a Progress Energy spokesman, Tim Leljedal, said today.
State regulators block Duke Energy's electricity plan
Duke Energy's bid to compete against other power companies for the largest and most lucrative electricity customers has been blocked by the N.C. Utilities Commission.
Duke, the state's biggest electric utility, had planned to sign a 10-year contract to sell electricity to the city of Orangeburg, S.C., which lies outside of Duke's regulated service area. The South Carolina city has been buying power from S.C. Electric & Gas since 1919 and is that utility's biggest single customer.
FPL rate increase: Florida Power & Light asks state for a $1 billion annual power boost starting in 2010 -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
The company submitted a proposal Wednesday to the Florida Public Service Commission to increase base power rates by $1 billion in 2010 and $1.25 billion in 2011.
Florida Power & Light proposes increasing electric rates by at least $1 billion a year starting next year.
The company submitted a proposal Wednesday to the Florida Public Service Commission to increase base power rates by $1 billion in 2010 and $1.25 billion in 2011.
FPL, the state's largest utility with 4.5 million customers, said the increase would allow it to earn a "fair" profit, while making its infrastructure stronger, more efficient and less likely to emit greenhouse-gas emissions.
Florida trying to undo nuclear plant financing | ajc.com
Georgia lawmakers weigh similar bill this week
As Georgia lawmakers push forward with a nuclear financing bill this week, their counterparts in Florida are scrambling to undo a similar measure approved three years ago.
In the past two weeks, Florida Republicans, including the state Senate president pro tem, drafted two bills aimed at a 2006 law requiring power customers to pay early for new nuclear reactors.
The bills are a reaction to public outrage, after those nuclear fees had an unexpectedly expensive and politically disastrous debut this winter.
One power company’s customers saw already spiking bills go up an extra 11 percent due to the nuclear fee.
timestranscript.com - Lepreau refurbishment delays could cost $90M - Breaking News, New Brunswick, Canada
Ratepayers will pay most of bill for nuclear plant upgrades
FREDERICTON - If they weren't stuck with the bill, ratepayers might be able to sympathize with surprise costs that face NB Power's refurbishment project at Point Lepreau.
The refurbishment project is currently running three to four months behind schedule, at a cost of about $20 million per month to ratepayers.
Each extra day will cost an extra $1 million in replacement fuel, and CEO David Hay says NB Power is on track to pay between $70 million to $90 million in unexpected replacement fuel costs to replace power normally generated by the reactor during the period it is down.
Nuclear proposal exempts big business from higher bills | ajc.com
Burden for paying for Georgia Power’s nuclear plants would rest largely on residents
A Senate bill that would allow Georgia Power to charge customers a special nuclear power fee largely exempts some of the state’s biggest businesses.
That could leave residents and smaller businesses shouldering most of the $1.6 billion interest cost of a planned nuclear expansion for Georgia Power.
It also likely defangs the bill’s most potent opposition at the Legislature.
The lobby for the state’s biggest industry had vowed to fight Georgia Power’s bid to charge customers early for financing for two planned nuclear reactors near Augusta.
Representatives of the state’s big industry testified to the state Public Service Commission two days ago that the early collection plan would cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars long-term.
Warning to taxpayers, investors — Part 2: Nukes may become troubled assets, ruin credit ratings
Part 1 presented a new study that puts the generation costs for power from new nuclear plants at from 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour — triple current U.S. electricity rates!
Nuclear plants with such incredibly expensive electricity and “out of control” capital costs, as Time put it, obviously create large risks for utilities, their investors, and, ultimately taxpayers. Congress extended huge loan guarantees to new nukes in 2005, and the American people will be stuck with another huge bill if those plants join the growing rank of troubled assets (see “Nuclear energy revival may cost $315 billion, with taxpayers’ risking over $100B“).
The risk to utilities who start down the new nuke path is also great. A June 2008 report by Moody’s Investor Services Global Credit Research, “New Nuclear Generating Capacity: Potential Credit Implications for U.S. Investor Owned Utilities” (PR here), warned that “nuclear plant construction poses risks to credit metrics, ratings,” concluding:
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