Finland's TVO plans cost cuts of nearly $18 million
Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), the Finnish nuclear power company, plans to restructure its operations amid low wholesale electricity market prices.
TVO, which operates the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant, said yesterday that it aims to achieve cost savings of €15 million ($17.7 million) by "centralizing corporate support functions", among other changes. This equates to a reduction of 100 "man working years" at the most, it added.
TVO blamed the weakened competitiveness of the electricity produced by the plant's two existing units as well as cost overruns related to the long-delayed third unit. The Olkiluoto plant consists of two, 880 MWe units. The project to build a 1660 MWe third unit is expected to be completed, finally, in late 2018.
Jarmo Tanhua, TVO president and CEO, said the competitiveness of the electricity produced by the Olkiluoto plant had declined in recent years and that the outlook was uncertain. The Nordic power market price for wholesale electricity production has dropped, he said, and "there are no signs of improvement in the foreseeable future".
Costs related to nuclear power production have increased and the delay to the start-up of Olkiluoto 3 "has caused remarkable additional costs", he said. "In order to improve the competitiveness of Olkiluoto electricity production we need to start these regrettable [cost cutting] measures."
TVO said it had informed its staff of "efficiency-related structural changes which will have implications [for] personnel".
Finland's state-run news service Yle said yesterday that TVO would start redundancy talks next week aimed at cutting up to 110 jobs. Staff directly responsible for the safety of the Olkiluoto plant's operations, including personnel representing safety authority STUK, will not be affected by the redundancy plans.
TVO is owned by a consortium of Finnish companies, including the majority state-owned Fortum, which operates the Loviisa nuclear power plant. Fortum said late last year that it may join the Fennovoima consortium planning to build a new reactor near Rauma. Jan Vapaavuori, Finland's minister of economic affairs, in September rejected TVO's revised application for a fourth unit at Olkiluoto, but approved plans for the Fennovoima project.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
