According to the French Court of Auditors (Cour des Comptes), EDF's nuclear upgrade programme could prove much more expensive than expected.
EDF's €55bn estimation was deemed consistent but the Court takes a longer period into consideration (from 2014 to 2030 instead of 2014-2025), which would raise the cost of the "Grand Carénage" programme to €100bn (€75bn in investments and €25bn in operation).
These investments should not have any significant impacts on electricity costs, even if costs soared from €49.6/MWh in 2010 to €62.6/MWh in 2014 due to rising investments in maintenance.
In addition, the Court estimates that EDF will have to retire 17 to 20 nuclear reactors to meet the legal obligation to cut the share of nuclear in the power mix to 50% by 2025. This could reduce EDF's annual revenues by €5.7bn, operation expenses by €3.9bn and maintenance investments by €1.5bn.
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