Sweden scraps talks on reactor co-ownership

Monday, 19 April 2010

Sweden's government has ended negotiations into breaking up the joint ownership of the country's nuclear power plants. The Swedish Competition Authority had called for the end of co-ownership of the plants to improve competition in the energy market.

 

The Ringhals plant will remain jointly owned (Image: Vattenfall)

The Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications has now announced that the government is ending talks, which have been underway for over two years, as no solution that is acceptable to all the parties involved has been found.

 

Sweden's three nuclear power plants - Oskarshamn, Ringhals and Forsmark - are held by various combinations of EOn, Fortum and Vattenfall. The three-unit Oskarshamn plant is owned jointly by EOn (54.5%) and Fortum (45.5%). The four-unit Ringhals plant is 70% owned by Vattenfall and 30% owned by EOn. Meanwhile, the three-unit Forsmark plant is owned by all three companies: Vattenfall (66%), Fortum (25.5%) and EOn (8.5%).

 

In May 2007, the Competition Authority recommended the government breaks up the co-ownership of Sweden's three nuclear power plants. While the authority said that it had no evidence of illegal cooperation between the part-owners, it said that there is "considerable danger that information will be unlawfully exchanged between competing enterprises."

 

Jan Magnusson, the former director general of grid owner Svenska Kraftnaet, was appointed by the government in 2008 to act as a mediator in discussions with EOn, Fortum and Vattenfall about ending co-ownership of reactors. The aim had been to come to a voluntary agreement where there would be a sole owner for each of the three nuclear power plants. Depending on which plant each company ended up owning, the others would give or receive compensation, financially or through output.

 

In a statement, the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications said: "The government believes that the issue of confidence in joint ownership remains with the reactor owners and they themselves have a responsibility to pursue it, for example, by creating professional codes of conduct to increase transparency and reduce the risk that joint ownership will lead to, or appear to cause, anticompetitive effects." It added, "This is preferably done in dialogue between relevant authorities, large and small buyers, and other stakeholders."

 

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News