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18 | 7TH - 13TH JULY 2017 | UTILITY WEEK Finance & Investment This week EDF will 'earn' right to build nuclear plant De Rivaz says new-build construction costs will fall and taxpayers will get good value for money EDF Energy's outgoing chief executive, Vincent de Rivaz, has promised that the company will "earn" the right to operate a new generation of nuclear plants in the UK. To do this, de Rivaz acknowl- edged, "we must offer the best value for money for taxpayers and we will make it happen". EDF's boss of 16 years made his comments at Utility Week's Energy Summit in London last week where he expressed his pride at having secured a deal for the construction of Hinkley Point C. He insisted the project was "delivering its construc- tion milestones to plan", but an update published shortly aerwards revealed that it is already on course to bust its budget by at least £1.5 billion and the first reac- tor may be delivered up to 15 months late. Addressing the future of nuclear power in the UK, de Rivaz insisted that Hinkley Point C would act as a trailblazer, heralding cheaper new-build nuclear as construction costs fell. Other speakers at the event disagreed, however. Speaking during a panel session, Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power Renewables, argued for a mixed energy system but said he was "uncertain about the future cost trajectory of nuclear". Joan MacNaughton, chair of The Climate Group, also expressed doubt over the future affordability of nuclear power. And despite de Rivaz's assertion that new-build nuclear generally enjoyed widespread public support, she said the matter was "divisive". JG ELECTRICITY Moixa closes in on virtual power plant Energy storage specialist Moixa has raised £2.5 million to invest in its growth strategy, including a 2020 target for the creation of a UK virtual power plant compris- ing 100,000 home batteries. The plant would aggregate a storage capacity of 250MWh to provide balancing services to National Grid. To help achieve this goal, Moixa secured £1 million of funding from the Greater Manchester Combined Author- ity to open a regional sales and delivery centre in the city. An additional £1.5 million in equity investment will support product trials in Europe, the US and Asia. Some £500,000 of the equity comes from Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company. Moixa plans to pilot its battery system in Tokyo later this year. ELECTRICITY RWE to upgrade Yarmouth CCGT RWE is to undertake a multi- million pound upgrade of its 400MW combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant in Great Yarmouth. The work will include the installation of new gas turbine technology as well as a major overhaul of the stream turbines and generator. The tune-up is scheduled to take place over 2018 and will increase the plant's output by 21MW and its combined-cycle efficiency by 2.1 per cent. RWE said that if the power station continued to operate at recent levels, the improvements would reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 180,000 tonnes over the next decade. There will be an outage of sev- eral months during the upgrade and more than 100 extra workers will be employed at its peak. GAS Ofgem accepts £54m rebate from Cadent Ofgem has accepted an offer from Cadent to waive £53.9 mil- lion of RIIO allowances as part of a mid-period review for gas and electricity transmission and gas distribution. Cadent proposed the refund following its decision to delay part of a gas mains replacement programme until aer the cur- rent price control period. The gas distribution network was originally allocated funding to replace 69km of medium pressure iron mains in cen- tral London but will now only replace 29km due to "unexpected engineering and stakeholder problems", according to Ofgem's decision document. "The London medium pressure replacement work remains a value positive programme," said Cadent. Hinkley Point C: cost overruns reported Stock watch 210 205 200 195 CENTRICA SHARE PRICE, FIVE DAY 6 Jun 13 Jun 20 Jun 27 Jun 4 Jul CENTRICA SHARE PRICE, ONE MONTH Centrica's shares got a brief boost on Monday aer Ofgem revealed plans for a price cap focused on vulnerable customers, and not all standard variable tariff customers. Aer opening the day at about 200p, the share price rose nearly 3 per cent to almost 206p by mid- aernoon, but dipped back down aer energy secretary Greg Clark told the Commons he would be prepared to introduce legislation if Ofgem's price cap didn't go far enough. 206 204 202 200 29 Jun 30 Jun 3 Jul 4 Jul pence pence