E15: ČEZ says up to four more nuclear units will be needed in Czechia

Up to four additional nuclear power units will need to be built to meet electricity demand in the Czech Republic in the future. Tomáš Pleskač, head of the new energy division at ČEZ, told the E15 daily. For now, plans call for one unit to be built at the Dukovany power plant in the Třebíč region. It is due to be completed by 2036, and according to earlier statements by government and ČEZ representatives, the new reactor is expected to cost around 160 billion crowns.

France’s EDF, South Korea’s KHNP and North America’s Westinghouse are bidding to build the unit at Dukovany. ČEZ, which is majority-owned by the state, invited all three bidders in the spring to submit their final offers by mid-September this year. „We are telling all bidders that there is a high probability that four large units will be built. The reason is simple: we want them to devote the same effort to preparing a non-binding offer for the remaining three units as they do to the offer for the first unit,“ Pleskač told E15.

„We are stressing that this is not an insignificant part of the tender, but a serious one, and that the final number of units will be decided after the State Energy Policy has been approved,“ he added.

According to him, the case for building four units is based on analyses that take into account a wide range of variables and possible scenarios.

An updated draft of the Czech Republic’s National Energy and Climate Plan, which has not yet been made public and which E15 has seen, confirms plans to build four new nuclear units. „The strategic objective for nuclear power is to complete the construction of a new nuclear power source at Dukovany by 2047 at the latest, along with additional nuclear power sources at the Dukovany site – depending on the lifetime of the existing units – and at Temelín,“ the document says, according to the daily. The plan projects that the sixth reactor at Dukovany will enter service in 2046, and the new units at Temelín in 2039 and 2041.

„It is too early to talk about the exact number of units, because the required capacity will undoubtedly be supplied by both large reactors and small and medium-sized ones. The final decision on building additional units will be framed by an update to the State Energy Policy, which the government is due to discuss by the end of the year,“ Vojtěch Srnka, spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Trade, told the daily.

According to information from the Deník N news website, Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela (STAN) and Environment Minister Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL) are due to discuss scenarios for the future of Czech energy today. The government is choosing between two options, according to the website. The first envisages building two new nuclear reactors and increasing investment in renewable energy sources. The second calls for three reactors and one smaller modular nuclear power source. The scenarios are being prepared, among other things, for the above-mentioned Czech Republic National Energy and Climate Plan, which the Ministry of Industry and Trade is now finalising. The government is to send the document to the European Commission.