GE in no hurry to bid
Posted by meb at September 6th, 2008
General Electric, the world’s biggest maker of power generation equipment, still plans to submit a bid to build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant even though it will probably miss a Sept. 24 government deadline.
GE’s nuclear venture with Hitachi, Japan’s third-largest builder of atomic plants, is working on a bid with partners Turkey’s Sabancı Holding and Spain’s Iberdrola, Jack Fuller, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.
“We are preparing the proposals, I just don’t think it can be completed before Sept. 24,” he said Wednesday in London. “The government also wants competition. They want multiple providers of nuclear technology. So if they only get, let’s say, one on the 24th, then that probably won’t satisfy their needs anyway.”
Turkey is among governments worldwide leaning toward nuclear power to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for global warming, as fossil fuel prices surge. Energy Minister Hilmi Güler said on Aug. 25 he rejected a request from four potential bidders to extend the deadline to allow companies to prepare for the auction.
Relaxed attitude:
“It’s possible the Turkish government will hold onto the 24th and we will be hurt by that,” Fuller said. “It’s also possible that they will change their mind and give everyone a little bit more time to get the best proposals.”
Toshiba’s Westinghouse Electric won’t bid in the tender and won’t propose its AP1000 nuclear unit, Dan Lipman, a senior vice president at Westinghouse, told reporters in London Thursday. “It’s not clear to us that the authorities in Turkey know exactly what they want and that means to me it could be a long and expensive journey,” he said.
The government tender is to build a 4,000-megawatt nuclear plant in the town of Akkuyu on the Mediterranean coast to help meet power demand that’s rising by eight percent a year. Westinghouse’s parent company Toshiba may be interested in the Turkish market, Lipman said.
Reconsideration:
Güler Sabancı, chairwoman of Sabancı, said on Aug. 26 the partners were reconsidering whether to bid after the government refused to extend the deadline. Iberdrola is Spain’s biggest power producer.
“Sabancı Holding and our partners Iberdrola and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy believe there’s still a chance the government will extend the deadline for collecting bids, so we’re still carrying out the necessary work and preparations,” Selahattin Hakman, head of Sabancı’s energy unit, said in an e-mail.
If the government doesn’t change the deadline, the partners may not bid together in the auction, he said. Six more months is enough to address issues on licensing and insurance, he said, adding that other bidders have also sought an extension.
GE Hitachi plans to offer its Advanced Boiling Water Reactor in Turkey, Fuller said. This type has a generating capacity of between 1,350 and 1,460 megawatts.
Turkey will also build a second plant near Sinop on the Black Sea coast.
“We think the country is ready for this type of nuclear activity,” Fuller said.
Meanwhile, RWE, Germany’s second-biggest utility, is among 12 bidders which received tender documents to build Turkey’s first nuclear-power station, Dünya newspaper said Friday.
RWE got the tender documents this week, Dünya said, citing officials at the energy ministry. Atomic Energy of Canada, Japan’s Itochu and Turkish companies Sabancı Holding and Alarko Holding are also among the companies which received the tender documents, the newspaper reported.
source: Turkish Daily News
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