Dukovany shortens outage, Temelín extends it. Czech plant to be fully offline for 52 days

Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant shortened the outage of its third unit compared with the original plan, with the unit beginning to supply electricity to the grid yesterday, rather than on the originally planned date of 19 October. By contrast, the restart of unit 2 at the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant has been postponed until 17 October.

Positive news for low-emission electricity generation in Czechia is the earlier restart of Dukovany's third unit, which has shortened its outage by a total of 23 days compared with the plan. The outage of unit 3 was originally due to end only on 19 October, but the unit began supplying electricity to the grid yesterday evening. The unit is expected to reach full output on Thursday, 29 September.

All three units at Dukovany should be in operation by the end of the year. Only unit 2 remains offline, as it is seeking an extension of its operating licence.

Conversely, negative news for nuclear power in Czechia is the extension of the outage at unit 2 of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant. It was due to end on 1 October, but according to the updated plan will probably not end until 16 days later, on 17 October.

According to the plant's spokesperson, the situation has been caused by the increased scope of work in the non-nuclear part of the plant.

Unit 2 began restarting as early as 7 September, but was shut down again due to damage to the turbine generator's oil liners. At the same time, a leak was discovered on the steam generator discharge pipeline, which was detected only after the unit had been shut down.

At the Temelín plant, unit 1 is also currently offline for a planned outage lasting until 15 November.

Due to the greater extent of outages, generation at the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant is expected to reach around 12.5 TWh this year. As a result of the extended outage at unit 2, the reduction in electricity generation is estimated at approximately 1.3 TWh.

This is negative news for ČEZ Group shares, as electricity generation at nuclear power plants is among the cheapest sources. Conversely, the rise in exchange-traded electricity prices in recent days is positive for ČEZ shares.