ČEZ outlines USD392 million plant modernisation plans

Investment projects at Temelin - which has two VVER-1000 units which came into operation in 2000 and 2002 - will reach CZK3.8 billion (USD182 million) and include continued modernisation of the control system and completion of the switch to a longer fuel cycle, the company said in an announcement last month. 

Following work which began in 2023, the second unit will switch to a 16-month fuel cycle in the spring, with the first unit to follow in the autumn.

Bohdan Zronek, Director of ČEZ's Nuclear Energy Division, said: "Operation between shutdowns will be half a year longer than the original design. This is a very important step in terms of the efficiency of the power plant's operation."

A similar process was carried out at Dukovany in 2024 - lengthening the time between needing to shut down the units for refuelling means that output overall is increased.

The Temelin plant will also continue to transition to a new Westinghouse control system. This process is taking place gradually across the two units, with a completion target of 2029.

Since 2022, ČEZ says, technicians have "installed dozens of new servers, laid 80 kilometres of mostly fibre-optic cables, made adjustments to the block control room, and replaced the processing units of the control cabinets".

There is also continued expansion of the use of artificial intelligence, which has already helped the units "save thousands of MWh of electricity annually".

According to plant director Petr Měšťan: "Data is corporate gold. There is a huge amount of it in the nuclear power plant environment, there are a total of twelve kilometres of archive shelves at both power plants. AI can make our work with this data much more efficient. We are already using it to work with documentation texts, and we want to gradually expand it to include images, drawings or diagrams."

Dukovany

Meanwhile at the Dukovany plant ČEZ says it is planning to invest CZK4.4 billion (USD210 million) in a large-scale modernisation project, including actions related to turbines, pumps and other key equipment focused on long-term operation of the power plant, and potentially increasing its output.

Zronek said: "The project that we will launch this year is a series of investment actions that we must coordinate with each other so that the renovation of the facility not only makes sense technically, but also brings an additional effect in the form of savings or increased production.

"We want to make full use of, for example, new welding methods, anti-corrosion protection of equipment, but also drones and elements of artificial intelligence. At the same time, we will continue to systematically digitise those activities where it makes sense."

ČEZ says that the timing of the project fits with ongoing preparations for the district heating pipeline scheme for Brno.

Plant director Roman Havlín also said that the generational change was coming to an end at Dukovany, whose four VVER-440 units were commissioned between 1985 and 1987. The average age of its 1,780 employees is now around 42, he said.

The Czech Republic currently gets about one-third of its electricity from nuclear generation and in addition to maintaining and upgrading its existing units - targeting operation for 60 years - the country has plans for new gigawatt units, initially at Dukovany, and also for up to 3 GW of small modular reactor capacity.