EDF: Why Hinkley Point EPR is unlikely to emerge – L’Express

Postponed once again. While the state rescues her, EDF agreed Friday to consult the central works council (CEC) concerning the proposed Hinkley Point in southwest England. Defended tooth and nail by Emmanuel Macron, but challenged by the unions, employees or executives officers of the French electrician, and questioned by the British public, construction 21.7 billion euros of two EPR seems s’ away every day a little more. The CEC should probably claim expertise, delaying by several months the final decision investissement.Explications.

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There is first the question of feasibility. Leaded by lower electricity prices, EDF shows a debt of 37.4 billion euros, and net income plummeting to 3701-1187000000 euros between 2014 and 2015. However, the company must find capital to fund the maintenance of its 58 French reactors.

EDF, only to endure almost 70% of the project cost

Meanwhile, the cost of Hinkley Point project has progressively heavier for EDF says Le Monde . There first had the departure of two partners. In 2013, the British company Centrica withdrew from the project, “concerned about the soaring costs of nuclear power,” the newspaper said. Areva, weighed down by its own difficulties, throw the sponge a few months later, when she had to fund 10% of the project is 2.5 billion euros. EDF must bear 66.5% of the cost of construction in the short term, or a whopping 16 billion euros.

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In the long term, there is not preordained. The association of employee shareholders, relayed by Mediapart, the finger tip that guarantee -very advantageous price for EDF with 118 euros the megawatt of 35 years- does not mean guarantee volume. Faced with the British strategy to promote renewable energy, the EPR Hinkley Point could only be used as a last resort, foretold Mediapart. Clearly, these plants may never be profitable.

A new internal crisis

Faced with such uncertainty, the project crystallizes the divide between “employees, trade unions and managers alike leaders,” said Mediapart, and secondly the management, supported by the government. So much so that the directors received an anonymous letter and “sustained, say its promoters, managers and executives 400 engineers of the group,” reports the news site, right before the Board of Directors of April 22. They see it threatened to be prosecuted if they validate the project without discussion.

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“From memory, I have never experienced such a situation of revolt in the company, such a rejection of its President Of crises,. conflicts we known yet at EDF “, so says a former head of Central Mediapart. In this context, employee shareholders have also Wednesday asked the AMF to withdraw the electrician of the Paris Stock Exchange, whereas the state, the majority shareholder, “acts as the sole owner EDF “, as announced in Les Echos . According to Mediapart, warnings would also be sent to management. If it persists in implementing the project, “a call for a hard strike will be launched, with power cut.”

Several billion to pay back?

And you also look towards the opinion in Britain. If the British government supports the EPR project is far from the case of public opinion. Whatever their political orientation, local media today demand the cancellation of the project, reports Le Monde . “Too complicated, too costly and late. A review”, asserts The Guardian . And Financial Times adds: “As painful as it is politically, the idea to stop Hinkley Point has become difficult to refute.”

Same story from British experts says Le Monde . All point to a “bad value” and call for solutions “less costly”, like the boss of Greenpeace UK. Following the announcement of the refinancing of EDF by the French State, the NGO has also announced its intention to cons-attack. Greenpeace and the British company green energy Ecotricity believe that this decision is related to state aid. Both ask Brussels to open an investigation on the matter.

If the French state fails to convince Brussels that its aid of € 3 billion is for EDF as a whole and not to indirectly finance the EPR, the electrician could be driven to pay “billions” notes Les Echos . According to Greenpeace and Ecotricity, this would lead “almost certainly at Hinkley Point of bankruptcy, if not also of EDF.”