POWER September 2017 - 14

4. Stuck in the middle. The Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor under development in southwest
Finland is at the center of a years-long legal dispute between Finnish power company Teollisuuden
Voima Oyj (TVO) and a consortium of Areva and Siemens. The plant is delayed nearly
a decade and has suffered massive cost overruns. The International Chamber of Commerce in
July granted a partial award in the dispute in favor of TVO. Courtesy: TVO
presence in that country. The plants include
the 47.7-MW Mashiki, the 2.4-MW
Yamagata Asahimachi, the 1.3-MW Shizuoka
Tashiro, and the 1.1-MW Saitama
Shiroishi facilities. Construction of the
plants was completed earlier this year.
Solar power from the plants is purchased
under a 20-year feed-in-tariff contract at
rates from ¥27/kWh to ¥36/kWh (24¢/
kWh to 32¢/kWh). Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman
and CEO of Canadian Solar, said in
a statement: " We are pleased to have
energized the 52.5 megawatts of solar
power plants in Japan. The 47.7-MW
Mashiki plant is the largest solar power
plant that we have built there, which
brings our total portfolio of projects in
operation in Japan to 112.7 MW. " Canadian
Solar has said its long-term plan is
to operate more than 600 MW of solar
power across Japan.
India Identifies Another 5.5 GW of
unfortunately for all involved, things did
go as planned. The plant is now scheduled
for completion in December 2018, and the
price tag has reached roughly €8.5 billion.
TVO and the Areva-Siemens consortium
have been in disagreement about who
should be paying for the overruns. From
the past two partial awards ordered by the
ICC, it would appear that TVO has the upper
hand. " The OL3 EPR was procured as a
fixed-price turnkey project from a consortium
(supplier) formed by AREVA GmbH,
AREVA NP SAS, and Siemens AG. The supplier
consortium companies are jointly
and severally liable for the plant contract
obligations, " a TVO press release says.
The July 2017 award " addressed the
preparation, review, submittal, and approval
of design and licensing documents
on the OL3 project. This comprises the
key facts and matters that the supplier
relies upon in its main claim against TVO,
as well as certain matters that TVO relies
upon in its claims against the supplier, "
the release says. However, the award
does not take a position on the claimed
monetary amounts.
The ICC issued another partial award in
November 2016, which addressed the early
period of the project including time schedule,
licensing and listenability, and system
design. That award was also granted in favor
of TVO. " TVO considers its claims to
be well-founded and has considered and
found the claims of the supplier to be
without merit. The partial award provides
material confirmation for this position, " a
November 2016 press release says.
This isn't the end of the fight, how14
ever,
as TVO notes: " The arbitration proceeding
is still going on with at least one
further partial award to come, before the
final award where the Tribunal will declare
the liabilities of the parties to pay
compensation. "
While liability is being decided, work
continues at the plant, which completed
cold functional tests on July 1, 2017.
" This is an important step in plant commissioning.
The hot functional tests
scheduled for autumn are the next major
milestone. Once this stage has been successfully
completed, OL3 will [fulfill] the
preconditions for the granting of the operating
[license] in early 2018. There are
still several important milestones to be
met before the start of the regular electricity
production at the end of 2018, "
Jouni Silvennoinen, OL3 project director,
said in a release.
The cold-run testing stage spanned
roughly four weeks, with dozens of tests
being conducted at different pressure
levels. During the testing, main coolant
pumps were started for the first time, and
the pressure in the reactor coolant system
was increased gradually to the maximum
design value, significantly exceeding normal
operating pressure.
-Abby L. Harvey is a POWER reporter.
POWER Digest
Canadian Solar Expands Solar Power
in Japan. Canadian Solar in July started
commercial operation of its latest
group of photovoltaic solar power plants
in Japan as it continues to build its solar
www.powermag.com
Coal Power for Retirement. The Central
Electrical Authority (CEA) in India in
late July said it would phase out more
coal-fired power plants as part of its
commitment to retire coal plants more
than 25 years old. The CEA, which has retired
about 4 GW of coal power over the
past two years, said it has found another
5.5 GW that it will mark for retirement,
although the group did not provide a
timeframe. About 78% of India's power
comes from coal-fired plants, which account
for nearly 60% of the country's installed
power capacity (195 GW of 330
GW total), according to the CEA. The
country also is retrofitting some coal
plants with emissions-reduction technology.
Even as India retires older plants,
state-run utility NTPC in July said it
plans to invest $10 billion in new coalfired
projects over the next five years.
Japan-Bangladesh JV Developing
LNG-Based Plant. The government of
Bangladesh is importing more liquefied
natural gas (LNG) and looking to establish
more import terminals as a JapanBangladesh
joint venture (JV) develops
a 500- to 600-MW regasified LNG-based
combined cycle power plant in Matarbari.
The plant would be the country's second
JV plant using imported regasified LNG.
The JV includes Japan's Mitsui and Co.,
Ltd., and the Coal Power Generation
Co. Bangladesh Ltd. (CPGCBL). Md Abul
Quasem, managing director of CPGCBL,
told the Dhaka Tribune that Petrobangla,
the government-backed energy development
group, has deals and memoranda of
understanding for six LNG import terminals,
and interest has been expressed in
more terminals. Mitsui and CPGCBL will
POWER | September 2017

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POWER September 2017

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