Financial Times on Sizewell C

of Felixstowe and Lowestoft, is set to become the centre of debate about
Britain’s future energy security. UK ministers are aiming to bring
forward legislation in the autumn to support the financing of a 3.2
gigawatt nuclear power station in Sizewell, East Suffolk, which could
generate electricity for 6m households. Ministers have been in formal
negotiations with EDF about how to fund the proposed £20bn Sizewell C
plant since December, and the government and the French state-backed
utility have had discussions about replacing Britain’s ageing nuclear
reactors for years. However, the question of whether Britain should build
more large plants took on added urgency last month, when EDF closed the
1.1GW Dungeness B station in Kent seven years early. It also raised the
prospect that other reactors may also be decommissioned ahead of schedule,
owing to problems with their graphite cores. “The UK has made great
strides in decarbonising its power sector in recent years but the
forthcoming retirements of old nuclear stations could halt that progress,
or even send it into reverse,” warns Simon Virley, lead energy partner at
KPMG UK, who was the government’s director-general for energy markets and
infrastructure between 2009 and 2015. “If there was [a capacity issue],
what good is Sizewell going to do given it won’t come on line until 2034
according to EDF?” asks Stephen Thomas, emeritus professor of energy
policy at the University of Greenwich. Nuclear sceptics have long argued
that money would be better spent on clean energy technologies, such as
offshore wind, and reducing electricity demand through measures including
insulation. Under a RAB model, consumers would pay towards a new plant
through their energy bills long before any electricity is generated.
Opponents of the model warn that consumers would also be on the hook for
cost overruns.

 FT 14th July 2021

 https://www.ft.com/content/3f2bfc76-5b74-437c-8b18-67f9cde991af