Rudd: Hinkley delay ‘would not risk security of supply’

Energy secretary Amber Rudd has insisted the government has “arrangements in place” to ensure a potential delay or cancellation to Hinkley does not pose a risk to the UK’s energy security.

However, she admitted that a last-minute delay to the project could result in increased costs for consumers, and jeopardise the country’s decarbonisation targets.

Rudd made the comments in a letter to the chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, Angus MacNeil, in response to his questions following a meeting of the committee in March.

The government has “every confidence” the deal will go ahead, but, Rudd said, if Hinkley were to be delayed or cancelled, “keeping the lights on is non-negotiable”.

She said any resulting supply shortfall could be filled without “any significant extra costs to consumers” via the capacity market, so long as the delay did not come within four years of Hinkley’s planned commissioning in 2025.

However, she added that while the government was confident alternative capacity could still be sourced beyond that point, “this may come at a higher cost”.

“There is also a risk though that any such delay could put at risk our decarbonisation targets – one of the key reasons the government is supporting Hinkley Point C in the first place,” she said.

Greenpeace director John Sauven said: “Amber Rudd has admitted that any delay from EDF will cause higher bills for consumers. There is plenty of evidence from all the other nuclear reactors being built by EDF that they are both hugely delayed and massively over budget.

“It is highly unlikely that Hinkley would be an exception to this rule as it was originally due to come on line next year.”

Last week EDF and Areva asked the French Nuclear Safety Authority to extend its tests on the vessel for the European pressurized reactor (EPR) they are building at Flamanville in France because of concerns over manufacturing defects. The same EPR technology is set to be used for Hinkley Point C.