The covid-19 pandemic has led to a six-month delay in the expected completion of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
In an update, client EDF Energy said that the start of electricity generation from Unit 1 was now expected to be in June 2026, compared to the end of 2025 as had been announced initially in 2016.
The cost of the project is now estimated at £22bn-£23bn, based on 2015 prices.
Meanwhile EDF has maintained the risk of delay of the nuclear reactors at 15 and nine months respectively, which it said would incur a potential extra cost of £700m in 2015 prices.
The project is now focused on the objective to lift the Unit 1 reactor dome at the end of 2022.
Managing director Stuart Crooks said: “We have been able to keep working through covid because our teams have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the site and our community safe, with many measures to keep our community safe and enable social distancing. In these very challenging circumstances, it is a very considerable achievement that we hit 18 of our 20 milestones last year.”
