DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
AND CLIMATE CHANGE News Release (2009/001) issued by COI News
Distribution Service. 5 January 2009
The Government has
welcomed the completion today of EDF's £12.5 billion purchase
of British Energy Group plc. The purchase is a significant step in
EDF's plans to build four new nuclear reactors in the UK
Completion today, following regulatory clearance with conditions
by European competition authorities in December, marks the
culmination of the restructuring of British Energy. In 2002 the
Government stepped in to support a restructuring of the company in
order to ensure the safety of nuclear power and security of
electricity supplies. Since then, the challenge to tackle climate
change has made the growth of new nuclear power more pressing and
this transaction enables the UK to move further towards its
ambition to become a low carbon economy.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said:
"Given the challenge of climate change and energy security,
it is right to embrace nuclear power as one of the technologies
that can serve us in the future. Today's announcement marks
an important step on the path to new nuclear power becoming a
reality, just a year after we published the Nuclear Energy White Paper.
"In addition to the important investment made by EDF, our
ambition is to have more than one firm building and operating
nuclear power stations in the UK. There are strong signals of
interest in this from the power industry and we will continue to
work with stakeholders to bring about the conditions that can make
that possible."
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said:
"Completion of this takeover represents not only a £12.5
billion investment in the UK by EDF but, in opening the way for
new nuclear build, should provide many billions of pounds more
opportunity for the UK supply chain."
The sale, which includes the 36 per cent stake in the company
held by the Government's Nuclear Liabilities Fund, raises
approximately £4.4 billion towards the cost of decommissioning
British Energy's existing nuclear power stations. EDF's
takeover offer was announced on September 24.
Notes to Editors
1. British Energy is the UK's largest electricity generator
employing over 6,000 people. It currently owns and operates eight
nuclear power stations in the UK at Dungeness, Hartlepool,
Heysham, Hinkley Point, Hunterston, Torness and Sizewell. It also
owns and operates the Eggborough coal-fired power station in Yorkshire.
2. EDF is France's historical electricity operator and has a
strong position in Germany, the UK and Italy. It supplies gas,
electricity and associated services to more than 38 million
customer accounts worldwide including more than 28 million in
France and 5.5 million in the UK.
EDF has committed to the European competition authorities to:
divest British Energy's coal fired power station at
Eggborough; divest EDF Energy plc's gas fired power station
at Sutton Bridge; sell in GB amounts of electricity ranging from 5
to 10 TWh per year, during the period from 2012 to 2015; and give
up one of the combined group's three grid connection
agreements at Hinkley Point.
EDF has also committed to divest, without conditions, one site
potentially suitable for the construction and operation of new
electricity production facilities situated adjacent to existing
British Energy stations at either Heysham or Dungeness, at the
option of the purchaser. This latter commitment is in addition to
the existing conditional commitments to sell land at Wylfa and Bradwell.
Department of Energy and Climate Change
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