EDF Extends U.K. Nuclear Outage

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Four U.K. nuclear power reactors that were taken offline recently could be out action until the end of the year, prompting concerns that the country will have to implement power-saving measures.

EDF Energy (London, England) shut four reactors after a fault was discovered at a boiler spine at Unit 1 of the Heysham 1 nuclear power plant in Lancashire, England. It halted the second reactor there and also two at its Hartlepool nuclear power plant in County Durham, in northeast England for further inspections. For additional information, see August 12, 2014, article--EDF Shuts Four U.K. Nuclear Reactors.

It was thought that the reactors would be brought back online in October, but this has been expanded to between October and the end of December.

"EDF Energy has put in place a detailed and fully resourced boiler inspection program at both sites and further boiler inspections are now underway, the company stated. "This has involved working with key suppliers to identify and put the necessary equipment and people in place to undertake this complex and specialized engineering program. Engineers have recently been able to begin their inspections and the first two inspections have been completed. The engineers found no defects on these spines."

It added: "Now that the program has been developed in detail and is underway, EDF Energy can give information on the estimated dates for returning the four reactors to service. Depending on the progress of the program and any necessary modifications, the company expects there to be a phased return to service between the end of October and the end of December, 2014."

The extended outage comes at a time when the county's grid operator, National Grid, is concerned about the availability of power from the U.K.'s generation plants. It has decided to exercise its option to tender for Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) for winter 2014-15, claiming it is "a sensible precaution" to take due to uncertainty about generation plant outages. It will tender for generation plants that would not otherwise be available in the market, in order to make themselves available to be held in reserve outside the market during this winter, as capacity in the U.K. tightens.

"This is a sensible precaution to take while the picture for this winter remains uncertain," explained Cordi O'Hara, National Grid's Director of U.K. Market Operation. "At this stage we don't know if these reserve services will be needed, but they could provide an additional safeguard. We have had a very positive response to the DSBR pilot and plan to offer contracts to the successful parties in September. Tendering for Supplemental Balancing Reserve will enable us to see what additional reserves can be provided by generators at a competitive cost".

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