EDF Energy on 1 October announced water treatment and waste water company Ovivo as preferred bidder in a contract worth over GBP10m ($15bn) as it prepares to make a final investment decision for the Hinkley Point C NPP in the UK. Two Areva 1600MWe EPR reactor units are planned for the plant.
EDF said the contract will help to secure jobs and boost the UK’s manufacturing sector. The contract is to supply intake water filtration systems at the site. The equipment will be manufactured in the UK and engineered from Ovivo’s facilities in Colchester and Wolverhampton. Last week it was announced that two preferred bidder contracts worth over £100m had been awarded to Rolls Royce and a Rolls Royce/Nuvia partnership. This followed the announcement in July of more preferred bidders to the Hinkley Point C project in contracts worth a total of more than £1.5bn.
In October 2013 EDF Energy announced the four main preferred bidders for engineering and construction as: Bouygues TP, Paris /Laing O’Rourke, Dartford for the civil work contract; Costain, Maidenhead, for marine work; Alstom, Paris, for turbine generators; and Areva, Paris, for Instrumentation and Control, Nuclear Steam Supply System and fuel.
It is now estimated that contracts worth more than 60% of the construction cost for Hinkley Point C will be placed with UK firms, compared with an initial estimate of 57%. EDF Energy and suppliers have been working to create a supply chain to build the proposed NPP, which will be the first new nuclear construction in the UK for 20 years. However, the contracts are subject to a final investment decision, expected soon. Earlier in September, EDF said the Hinkley Point project, which was intended to begin commercial operation by 2023, would be delayed. In February, the company said it had pushed back a final investment decision.
