Hinkley’s significance has been ‘overplayed’, says SSE boss

The significance of Hinkley Point C to the Britain’s future energy supplies has been “overplayed”, the boss of SSE has said.

The government needs to focus on “maintaining confidence” in the current policy framework so alternatives can fill the gap left behind if the new nuclear plant is cancelled.

“I have absolutely no idea what will happen to Hinkley Point C and whether it will be taken forward or not. For me though, its significance to the UK’s needs for secure, modern supplies of electricity has been repeatedly overplayed,” said chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies, writing on the website Politics Home.

“Whilst it is undoubtedly true that we need new, cleaner technology to replace the older power stations coming off the system,” he added, “there are enough credible alternatives out there which can be built in time to deliver the balanced energy mix we need, and a policy framework which can deliver the necessary investment.”

Phillips-Davies said the government already has a “strong package” of policies in place to achieve a “balanced energy mix” in the form of the capacity market, the contracts for difference scheme and the carbon price floor. It has also been “pragmatic in fixing any design flaws”, for example by reforming the capacity market to deliver more new gas fired plants. SSE will itself enter two new gas-fired plants (Keadby in Lincolnshire and Abernedd in South Wales) into the next capacity auction.

If Hinkley doesn’t progress, there is “plenty” to fill the gap: “Today there is now nearly twice as much generating capacity from new gas-fired power stations and offshore wind potentially waiting to come on to the country’s electricity system by 2025 as there is old coal and nuclear coming off.”

Phillips-Davies noted the emergence of new technologies such as small modular reactors, demand-side response and storage, and highlighted the repowering of old wind farms without subsidies and wind power on the Scottish Island as potential alternatives.  

He also said they are “not necessarily more expensive” and that wind power could go “toe-to-toe with nuclear on cost” by 2025. “This is an opportunity to seriously build part of a UK industrial strategy around,” he added.

Offshore wind and storage do not have the “huge scale” needed to replace Hinkley, Utility Week was told yesterday by the strategy manager for offshore renewables at the Energy Technologies Institute Stuart Bradley.

His comments came after the director of energy, minerals and infrastructure for the Crown Estate, Huub den Rooijen, appeared to suggest they could fill in for Hinkley if it was scrapped.

The 3.2GW nuclear plant in Somerset was given the go-ahead by EDF at the end of July, following years of delays. Within hours the UK government announced it would postpone its final decision until the autumn whilst it undertakes a review of the project.