“Now we will evaluate the bids and, according to the contract with the state, we will submit an evaluation report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, i.e. to the government of the Czech Republic, for final approval.” said Tomáš Pleskač, member of the board of directors and director of the new energy division of ČEZ. ČEZ anticipates that the contracts with the winner will be finalized during this year and ready for signature by the end of March next year.
Bidders submitted their bids electronically, using special encryption and a unique secure storage. According to spokesman Ladislav Kříž, ČEZ will focus on technical and economic parameters or guarantees when evaluating bids. “We convert all the criteria into financial statements, from which the final ranking will then come out,” described. There will be around 280 people in the working group that will evaluate the offers. According to Kříž, these are mainly representatives of ČEZ, as well as external experts from legal offices and also representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. After evaluating the bids, ČEZ will make recommendations to the government.
The French want to involve Czech companies
The French ambassador to the Czech Republic, Stéphane Crouzat, said that EDF’s offer has the full support of the French state, as France fully owns the company. According to him, the sooner this project is implemented, the sooner the necessary energy transformation will occur. France itself is building new reactors. According to the ambassador, Europe should choose nuclear power as its strategic energy source. “EDF will ensure that Czech entities are included in the supply chain,” said Crouzat about the Czech tender.
“Today we enter a new phase,” noted EDF Vice President Vakis Ramany, saying that the ERP1200 type reactors that the company would build are the only ones that meet the strictest European safety regulations. He also added that EDF approached more than 100 Czech companies with whom it could cooperate on the project. Agreements on future cooperation have been concluded with more than 30 companies. “We are impressed by the capabilities of the Czech industry,” the vice president said. Among the agreed companies are, for example, Škoda JS, Metrostav DIZ and Vítkovice ES.
“Our goal is for the blocks to be built with the largest possible share of Czech workers,” continued the director of the Czech branch of EDF Romand Zdebor. He also talked about the multiplier effect in the economy, according to him, every crown invested will increase to three crowns.
Up to two trillion crowns?
The completion of Dukovan is a huge project, the largest and most expensive in modern history. According to statements from the government and ČEZ from previous years, one new reactor should cost roughly 160 billion crowns, but some economists contradicted this. According to them, four reactors could cost up to two trillion crowns. Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) said that the bids for the construction of more reactors were a quarter cheaper.
The American Westinghouse also applied for the completion, but dropped out of the tender. According to the government, he did not meet the conditions. The completion of Dukovan and the company’s participation in the tender was one of the topics of Fiala’s recent visit to the White House.
In France too, the order reached the highest political levels, French President Emmanuel spoke about it in March during his visit to Prague Macron. He stated that EDF is trying to improve its offer and that it would also like to involve Czech companies in the project. Macron also participated in the Czech-French nuclear forum in Prague, where he emphasized that the friendship between the Czech Republic and France is important for the development of nuclear energy throughout Europe.
The EU gave the green light
The European Commission stated in today’s press release that The Czech Republic made adjustments to the original conditions of the support in order to dispel its concerns about negative effects on the market.
According to the Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela, the decision is also important for the development of nuclear energy throughout Europe. “This is the first decision that takes into account the updating of the design of the European electricity market, and it can therefore be expected that other nuclear projects will also be based on our model when setting public support,” described Síkel.
The Commission opened an investigation into the planned aid in June 2022 due to doubts as to whether the aid complies with European Union rules. “The task of the commission is to ensure that the proposed state aid is targeted, proportionate and without excessive impacts on the EU energy market. During our investigation, the Czech Republic amended the original measure and submitted substantial commitments. This allowed us to approve the aid,” stated in today’s press release the Vice President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestagerová, who is in charge of economic competition.