EDF’s two nuclear plants should be negotiated as one, French minister says
EDF’s two nuclear construction schemes at Hinkley Point and Sizewell C should be treated as one financial venture in negotiations, according to France’s energy minister.
Marc Ferracci told the FT he had held discussions with the UK’s energy minister Ed Miliband at the sidelines of a conference in London on Thursday.
“France and EDF are very committed to deliver the projects but we have to find a way to accelerate them and we have to find a way to consolidate the financial schemes of both projects,” he said.
The French government has been pushing ministers in the UK to lend a hand with Hinkley Point’s floundering finances over the last year.
Costs on the nuclear project have risen to as high as £46bn and it argues EDF, the French state-owned energy firm, should not be forced to cover the overruns.
EDF’s equity stake in Sizewell C, a 3.2 gigawatt nuclear station on the Suffolk Coast, is smaller than Hinkley Point.
Ferracci denied that the French government was looking to use Sizewell as “leverage” against the financial troubles at Hinkley.
“It is not a discussion about leverage, it is a discussion between friends and allies,” he told the FT. “We need to stick together on many subjects — on Ukraine, on all dimensions of our relationship. So there is a way through and I hope we will be able to find it in the next few months.”
He also called for a global solution that would result in a deal that benefitted EDF’s returns across both schemes.
“It is a good approach to have a global approach to our relationship,” Ferracci said, adding more “grid connections between France and the UK” could come into the negotiations.