Saturday 20 April 2013

Energy Policy via Blackmail & Megaphone Diplomacy

So the government doesn't care if the nuclear strike-price negotiations drag on or even fail - and now EDF says it doesn't care much either.  Not quite what either party was saying just a few frantic weeks ago, but there we are.  What a game.

Meanwhile in Germany, a part of the world where energy policy is even more dysfunctional and the lights going out is an imminent prospect, there is desperate scrambling just to keep some existing gas-fired plants open.  A very clear preview of what will shortly be the primary focus of attention in  the UK, I do believe.  And unlike debates about power sources for 2025, this one is for real.

ND

6 comments:

Blue Eyes said...

Atomkraft ja bitte, aber nur am billige Preis!

Bill Quango MP said...

The case has a political dimension as after Germany's decision to pull out of nuclear faster and to hold on to a subsidy-driven green energy expansion, the energy system is turned upside down, causing margin pressure for utilities and posing supply risks

And did they not think this would happen? What did the German ministers expect would happen? Green Energy would replace nukes? Or the French Nukes would have so much supply that Germany could pretend they weren't using nuclear energy by buying their neighbours?

rwendland said...

A French analyst says even if a strike price was agreed, EDF is £33bn in debt, and it is unclear how EDF could raise the money to build the EPRs at Hinkley Point especially with share price 80% down from 2008.

I predict EDF will abandon the difficult to build EPR design, and cut a deal with China (possibly Russia) for a new reactor design as EDF's head of production and engineering has been discussing with the media lately. That'll give EDF a cheaper reactor and perhaps access to investment finance, but they'd have to get the new design assessed by the UK regulator putting back any new build by at least 4 years.

Here's the report of what EDF's Head of Engineering said:

"Machenaud said that the development of a wider range of next-generation reactors would help to reverse a situation in which the world's biggest builder of reactors "has paradoxically lost in the nuclear area our dominant position in terms of design and construction".

The proposed new reactors would both have lower output than the 1,600 megawatt EPR; one offering 1,500 MW and the other 1,000, Machenaud said.

There would follow a period of reflection on the best way to proceed to improve on the EPR ... to lower its price and integrate post-Fukushima safety measures, he said."

That last para is politeness/politics. It would be crazy for EDF to have both a 1500 MWe and 1600 MWe design - they & partner need to get the best volume production behind one design.

rwendland said...

EDF is now cutting the number of staff working on Hinkley Point preperation. So either EDF have lost hope of an agreement anytime soon, or it thinks this is a way of putting pressure on the govt to agree more subsidy!

assurance info said...

"""" Meanwhile in Germany, a part of the world where energy policy is even more dysfunctional and the lights going out is an imminent prospect, there is desperate scrambling just to keep some existing gas-fired plants open. A very clear preview of what will shortly be the primary focus of attention in the UK, I do believe. And unlike debates about power sources for 2025, this one is for real.""""

Agence communication said...

thanks so much for sharing with us this article """ So the government doesn't care if the nuclear strike-price negotiations drag on or even fail - and now EDF says it doesn't care much either. Not quite what either party was saying just a few frantic weeks ago, but there we are. What a game.

Meanwhile in Germany, a part of the world where energy policy is even more dysfunctional and the lights going out is an imminent prospect, there is desperate scrambling just to keep some existing gas-fired plants open. A very clear preview of what will shortly be the primary focus of attention in the UK, I do believe. And unlike debates about power sources for 2025, this one is for real.
""