ST. PETERSBURG - According to the Elfii consortium of large Finnish electricity users, a construction delay in an experimental new reactor design at Olkiluoto NPP will cost Nordic electricity users EUR 3 billion, the Finnish business daily Kauppalehti reported. Birthe Weijola, 12/09-2007 Elfi director Antti Koskelainen is quoted saying that the cost of the delay is comparable to the investment cost for the whole reactor.
The estimate is based on a report from the Finnish State Technical Research Institute (VTT), showing that a 1000 MW electricity cable from Leningrad NPP to Finland would cut the price of electricity in the Nordic countries by 6 percent by year 2011. The 1,600 megawatt Olkiluoto reactor would cut electricity prices even more, saving Nordic electricity consumers EUR 1.2 billion year.
The start-up date of the Olkiluoto 3 reactor has been delayed by two and a half years beyond its original start-update of 2009. The current estimate is that it will be finalized by 2011.
According to Martti Kätkä, the director of Finnish Technology Industries, also quoted in Kauppalehti, the delay of the reactor will additionally cost up to EUR 500m in carbon credits for the energy companies who are shareholders in Olkiluoto 3, who will have to rely on more coal power until the new reactor can be taken into use.
The reactor that is currently under construction at Olkiluoto NPP is the first European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) in the world. It was ordered by the Finnish energy company Teollisuuden Voima Oy from Areva, a French-German Consortium formed by Framatome ANP and Siemens.