EDF challenges Czech nuclear tender over KHNP selection, Westinghouse over security exemption

In its appeal against the tender to build two nuclear units at Dukovany, French utility EDF primarily challenged the decision to select Korea’s KHNP, while Westinghouse focused its arguments on the use of a security exemption. The Czech Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) published the grounds today in a press release. Both companies submitted their petitions to the Office in the last week of August, when ÚOHS merely confirmed that it had received them. It has now clarified the reasons that led the unsuccessful bidders to file their petitions.

„Administrative proceedings have been initiated in both cases, and given their substantive and procedural complexity, their duration cannot currently be predicted. Until first-instance decisions are issued, the Office will provide no further information on the proceedings,“ ÚOHS said.

„The petition by Electricité de France, or EDF, is primarily directed against the decision to select the preferred supplier. It therefore asks the Office to find that the tender conditions were breached and to annul the contracting authority’s actions related to the evaluation of bids,“ ÚOHS said.

The US company Westinghouse’s objection concerns ČEZ’s decision, as the contracting authority, to handle the contract outside the scope of the law under the so-called security exemption. „It also highlights breaches of the fundamental principles of public procurement and shortcomings in the selection of the preferred supplier. Westinghouse argues that the Office should annul the contracting authority’s decision to invite preferred supplier KHNP and supplier EDF, but not Westinghouse, to the next stage of the tender, as well as its January 2024 decision to expand the scope of the public contract and all subsequent actions,“ ÚOHS said.

In July, the government decided to build two new nuclear reactors at Dukovany. They are to be built by Korea’s KHNP, which won the tender in which the Czech government preferred it to EDF. ČEZ is now negotiating a contract with the Koreans, which is expected to be signed by the end of March next year. The first of the new reactors at Dukovany is expected to be completed in 2036. Westinghouse also took part in the tender initially, but the government did not invite it to the next stage of the competition at the beginning of the year. It said the company’s initial bid did not meet the requirements.