The four units at Hinkley Point and Hunterston have been returned to service, albeit at reduced power, although “we have encountered some teething problems during the process of raising load,” Montague added.
Operating the units at the reduced power level of approximately 70% requires fine tuning of the boilers and the balancing of temperature differentials across them and one unit at Hunterston was shut down to allow for additional work on balancing the water flows in the boilers. Similar additional work on other units at Hunterston and Hinkley Point may also be required, in each case about two weeks.
Work is continuing to increase power from the units, but reaching 100% power is “unlikely,” BE admitted.
However, nuclear output in the first quarter of this financial year, 2007-08, was 13 TWh after total nuclear unplanned losses for the period of 3.1 TWh (being unplanned losses of 2.6 TWh attributable to operations at Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B and unplanned losses of 0.5 TWh attributable to other stations). Despite operational issues, the company recorded a good financial performance on the back of higher achieved electricity prices.
The news came as the UK’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) issued a report on the restructuring of BE.
Edward Leigh, chairman of the Committee, said that while British Energy took on full responsibility for its nuclear power stations, including the associated nuclear liabilities, in actual fact, from 2002 when the company was restructured, liabilities –valued at £5.3 billion ($10.6 billion) in 2006 have been underwritten by the taxpayer.
The former Department of Trade and Industry “must not forget this and do a lot better job in monitoring the performance of the company, influencing its commercial strategy and ensuring that the eventual liabilities are as small as possible,” said Leigh.
Commenting on the report Liberal Democrat Shadow Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Secretary, Lembit Öpik said: “The restructuring of British Energy was clearly a botched job. The deal seems to be that the company is free to make money and control its own affairs, while the taxpayer is left to pick up the bill for dealing with the resulting nuclear waste.”
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