POWER August 2016 - 14

va ruled in mid-June. The 2-GW plant was
in the offing for more than two decades
before NEK contracted with Atomstroyexport
in 2006 to start construction of two
AES-92 model VVER units. Construction officially
launched in September 2008, only
for Bulgaria to abandon the plant in March
2012, citing soaring costs and a failure to
find new financial partners for the $11
billion project after Germany's RWE withdrew
in 2009. At the time, NEK offered to
pay for one already-manufactured reactor
and install it at its Kozloduy site. The firm
announced it would instead build a gasfired
power plant at the Belene site. However,
Atomstroyexport rejected its offer of
about €500 million, claiming NEK owed
twice as much, including damages for the
abandoned project.
The international court ruling this June
means that NEK will need to pay €550
million for the equipment for one reactor
and work with Atomstroyexport on what
to do with it, Bulgarian Prime Minister
Boyko Borissov said. He also emphasized
that the court had " only " ruled that the
Russian company be compensated for the
cost of equipment it had produced for the
plant, but rejected its claims for damages
and lost profits. The country must now decide
whether to seek the European Commission's
guidance on whether to install
the reactor or strike a deal with Russia
that will allow it to resell the unit to a
third party.
AREVA Spins Off Mining, Front-End,
Back-End Operations. Troubled French
nuclear equipment giant AREVA SA will
sell the majority of its reactor business
to French power firm EDF and spin off
its nuclear fuel operations to attract investors.
A new company, " NEW CO, " will
take on some of AREVA SA's debt and
focus on uranium mining, conversion,
and enrichment, as well as recycling,
logistics, and dismantling. Other subsidiaries,
including AREVA TA, AREVA NP,
and AREVA Energies Renouvelables will
be held by AREVA SA until the date of
their sale, the company announced as
it presented a roadmap for the group's
restructuring in mid-June. (On July 1,
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and EDF
entered into an agreement to acquire a
minority stake in AREVA NP.) AREVA will
also sell nuclear measurement and instrumentation
specialist Canberra. " As
a pure player in the nuclear fuel cycle,
NEW CO is in a unique position to play a
dominant role for the redefinition of the
French nuclear industry and in a market
destined to grow, particularly in Asia, "
AREVA said in a statement.
14
Beginning in 2017, the French government,
which owns over 85% of AREVA, will
inject another €5 billion into the firm to
increase the capital for both AREVA and
NEW CO, though that increase will be
subject to approvals from the European
Commission. It means that after this
transaction, the French government will
hold, directly or indirectly, a minimum of
two-thirds of NEW CO's equity. AREVA SA
will also retain the contract for the Olkiluoto
3 EPR, whose construction in Finland
is now nine years behind schedule and
three times over budget.
South Korea to Shut Down Aging Coal
Plants. The Ministry of Energy of South
Korea in July announced that it would
force 10 coal-fired power plants that
are more than 40 years of age to close
by 2025 in an effort to limit air pollution
and particulate matter emissions.
It has also introduced stricter rules for
operation and maintenance at existing
coal-fired power plants and projects under
construction. The country depends
on coal for more than 40% of its power,
and at least 20 new coal plants are in the
development pipeline. Fifteen of those
are already under construction, and all
are anticipated to come online by 2020.
State-run utilities are expected to spend
$8.68 billion on closures and upgrades by
2030 to meet new rules.
Joint Venture Bags Key Contract to
Develop ITER Fusion Reactor. Momentum,
a joint venture comprising Amec
Foster Wheeler, Assystem, and Korea
Electric Power Corp. Engineering and
Construction, has won a 10-year, $194
million contract to manage and coordinate
the assembly and installation of
more than a million components for the
ITER fusion reactor project in France.
ITER is an international collaboration between
China, the EU, India, Japan, South
Korea, Russia, and the U.S. to explore
and demonstrate the scientific and technological
feasibility of commercial fusion
reactors. Project developers are expected
to announce its full scope, schedule, and
cost in November 2016.
Momentum will work on the world's
largest tokamak, a toroidal electromagnet
that will contain the plasma where
the fusion reactions occur. The scope of
services includes contract management,
configuration management,
project
management, construction preparation,
site coordination, works supervision,
and activities leading up to mechanical
completion, but the contract does
not cover design or fabrication of components
(which are being provided by
www.powermag.com
multiple companies in the partner countries),
construction of the buildings, or
building services.
Nigeria's Power Woes Worsen After
Privatization. Generation companies
in Nigeria have been operating at a loss
since privatization of the nation's power
sector, and investors are urging the government
to take drastic steps or face an
energy crisis that may have grave implications
for its economy. Underscoring the
country's power woes is a July-released
generation report from the Transmission
Company of Nigeria showing that, despite
installing a total of 11.2 GW, available capacity
was only 5.5 GW. Power plants with
a total capacity of up to 4.4 GW aren't getting
enough gas to operate, while water
scarcity and transmission issues are constraining
another 230 MW, the Nigerian
Electricity and Regulatory Commission
said.
Minister of Power, Works, and Housing
Babatunde Fashola in June told power
users that electricity generation and supply
has dropped significantly because of
militant attacks on oil and gas facilities
in the Niger Delta and that the government
is increasingly looking to alternative
sources of power such as coal, solar,
and biomass. The 700-MW Zungeru hydropower
project will soon be completed,
and construction of the 3-GW Mambilla
hydropower plant is expected to begin
shortly, he said.
GE Unveils Digital Power Plant for
Steam. General Electric (GE) on June
14 unveiled the Digital Power Plant for
Steam, a new suite of technologies for
coal-fired steam power plants that monitors
and analyzes data from more than
10,000 sensor inputs across a plant and
is designed to help power operators make
smarter decisions about how to run their
power plants. GE said the digital power
plant's advanced controls and cybersecurity
software interprets data drawn from
sensors, highlighting key factors that may
affect performance (such as fuel quality,
plant aging, and ambient conditions) and
takes appropriate action through a closedloop
control system.
In June, GE inked a deal with the
Hub Power Co. (Hubco), Pakistan's largest
independent power producer, to provide
digital industrial solutions for the
1,292-MW Hubco Power Plant situated in
Baluchistan, Pakistan. The system will be
powered by Predix, GE's cloud-based operating
system built exclusively for industrial
purposes. ■
-Sonal Patel is a POWER associate
editor.
POWER | August 2016
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POWER August 2016

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