Contrary to widespread concerns about “gigantic investments” the final price of electricity for consumers from Poland’s first commercial nuclear power station will depend not solely on the cost of construction, but above all on on-time project delivery and maximum utilisation of installed capacity over 60 to 100 years of operation, Marek Woszczyk, said president of state project company Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe (PEJ).

“The price of energy from a nuclear power plant depends not only on construction costs – that’s obvious – but primarily on how we utilise its production capacity,” Woszczyk said.

“We’re dealing with a classic economy-of-scale effect here. If we don’t operate at 90 to 95% capacity for 8,000 hours a year, the unit cost will be higher.”

Woszczyk said this is why Poland had asked Brussels for the most favourable possible contract for difference (CfD) as part of the financing plan for the project to build three Westinghouse-supplied AP1000 reactor units near the villages of Lubiatowo and Kopalino, on the Baltic coast in the northern province of Pomerania.