Fortum Drops Areva-Siemens at Loviisa Nuclear Project

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - Blaming expected delays Finnish utility, Fortum Oyj (HEL:FUM1V) (Espoo, Finland), has dropped an Areva-Siemens consortium from the ongoing project to modernise the instrumentation and control (I&C) systems at its Loviisa nuclear power plant in southern Finland.

"Modernisation of the Loviisa nuclear power plant's automation started in 2005," Fortum explained. "The reactor control system and automation for auxiliary systems were completed at Unit 1 in 2008 and at Unit 2 in 2009. During the planning and testing of the next phase of the current automation modernisation agreement, it appeared that the implementation of the current project would have been further delayed from its original time schedule and would have taken too long to complete."

It added: "Fortum and Areva-Siemens Consortium have agreed on discontinuation of the current automation modernisation project agreement".

It has denied speculation that its decision had anything to with the major problems that Areva-Siemens are having building the Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear power plant -- Finland's fifth nuclear plant. OL3 will be Finland's fifth nuclear reactor, with a capacity of 1,600-megawatt (MW). The project stated back in 2005 and was supposed to have been finished and operating by the middle of 2009. Areva has had to foot a bill estimated to be billions of euro for the delays. For additional information, see February 28, 2013, article - Finland's Olkiluoto 3 Nuclear Project Delayed.

Loviisa produces a total of 8.04 terawatt hours (TWh) annually which accounts for approximately 9% of Finland's total electricity production. The aim of the automation modernisation project is to guarantee the lifespan of the Loviisa nuclear power plant. Unit 1 has an operational license to 2027 and Unit 2 until 2030.

Hot on the heels of the news that Areva-Siemens were out, Fortum revealed that it has contracted the U.K.'s Rolls-Royce Energy (LSE:RR.L) (London, England) to take over. Refusing to outline the value of the deal, Fortum said that the project mainly covers the automation modernisation of safety-related systems in both production units at Loviisa. The project will be completed by the end of 2018.

Rolls-Royce will deliver all the required automation systems including planning, testing and installations. Metso is Rolls-Royce's sub-supplier providing non-safety operational instrumentation and control (I&C), field design and implementation on site. Rolls-Royce said that it has supplied safety instrument and control technology to all 58 reactors in France and is working on the I&C modernisation programme for EDF's fleet of 900 MW and 1,300 MW fleet of reactors. It has I&C technology installed in more than 200 nuclear reactors across 20 countries.

The aim of the automation modernisation project is to guarantee the extended lifespan of the Loviisa nuclear power plant. Unit 1 has an operational license to 2027 and Unit 2 until 2030.

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