Electrabel cautious over nuclear electricity plant extension report

The political parties negotiating to form a new government in Belgium have come to an agreement to extend the lifespans of the nuclear reactors Doel 1 and 2 by 10 years, according to local media reports. However, Belgian energy company Electrabel, which operates the reactors, maintains a wait-and-see approach in the absence of any official government statement.

“We are following the recent media reports closely, but it’s too early for Electrabel to make any declarations of intent,” a company spokeswoman explained. “Our position is still that extending the lifespans is technically possible but that we need to conduct a study to find out whether its economically feasible,” she explained.

The security of supply in Belgium has been under stress due to the prolonged outages of the Doel 3 and Tihange 2 reactors, and blackouts were only narrowly avoided last winter, according to a report by the consulting firm Sia Partners. With the additional outage of Doel 4, the prospect still looms and an outage plan has been developed as a last resort to balance the grid ( see EDEM 15 September 2014 ).

Doel 1 and 2 represent a total capacity of 866MW, and were previously scheduled to close in February and December 2015, in accordance with a law that was passed in 2003 with a view to phasing nuclear generation out of the Belgian power mix. The law also set a cap of 40 years for the lifespan of the nuclear reactors, but has previously allowed for this limit to be exceeded.

According to Belgian media reports, the negotiating parties hope to modify the law to allow for the extension of Doel 1 and 2 to be made as soon as possible, and at least before the end of the year. The Belgian energy ministry had not responded to requests for comment as ICIS went to press.

The decision to extend the lifespan of the nuclear reactor Tihange 1, which like the Doel reactors has been in operation since 1975, was made in March. As a consequence, Tihange 1 is currently offline to complete the necessary overhaul to upgrade the reactor for a further ten years of service. It is scheduled to come back on the grid on 16 October to help bolster winter supply and will be taken offline for a second time in the period 6 June to 31 July 2015.

Market impact

Belgian power prices for the winter have increased sharply. The Belgian Q4 ’14 Baseload contract breached the €60.00/MWh threshold for the first time on 29 August, and traded at €64.00/MWh on Tuesday’s session, according to ICIS data. The contract has steadily increased since it changed hands on 20 March at €47.20/MWh.

Meanwhile the Q1 ’15 Baseload contract has increased by €13.15/MWh from €51.25/MWh on 31 March to deal as high as €64.40/MWh on Tuesday. Calendar Year 2015 Baseload prices also reflect the risk premium, dealing at €42.40/MWh on 25 March, but rising to change hands up to €51.30/MWhy on Tuesday. Joachim Moxon