Nuclearelectrica and China General Nuclear Power sign the agreement for the reactors 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant

By Edwig Ban
On 9 May, the final form of the agreement between Nuclearelectrica Romania and China Nuclear Power will be signed for the company that will build in the public-private partnership the reactors 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, according to sources in the market energy.
Investors’ agreement will be signed on May 9th. The China Nuclear Powerapproves the establishment of the Romanian-Chinese company that will carry out the project of finalizing reactors 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, an investment of over 6 billion euros.
The signing of the final agreement takes place after the Nuclearelectrica shareholders have approved in the General Meeting of Shareholders the Preliminary Form on Investors’ Units 3 and 4 at Cernavoda NPP between China General Nuclear Power Corporation and CGN Central and Eastern Europe Investment (RO) CO.SA and National Nuclearelectrica SA. (SNN).
The Preliminary Investors Agreement provided for the establishment of the project company (JVCo) limited to being the only technical and operational platform for the further development of the Project after the approval and conclusion of the Investors Agreement.
The new project company (JVCo) has a social capital of 90,000 lei at the founding, with a capital increase reaching the maximum equivalent of EUR 4,080,000, maintaining shareholding shares of 51% CGN and 49% % SNN, subject to the approval and conclusion of the Investor Agreement, respectively the final transaction document as provided in the Revised Strategy. JVCo – joint stock company, will be set up under the Law 31/1990 on companies and will have an initial 2-year term.
The company will deal with the public-private partnership building project for reactors 3 and 4, a project of about 6 billion euros.
Romania has a principle agreement for the construction of reactors with the Chinese company China General Nuclear Power (CGN). To this value, however, the Chinese partner must ensure that he / she will recover the money he / she invested, with the corresponding profit, from the sale of electricity on the market. Therefore, the Government intends to introduce the system of difference contracts, which will guarantee the investor to recover the investment with the corresponding profit.
The two reactors, which would be built with Canadian CANDU technology, would account for up to 14% of Romania’s national electricity consumption.
The Cernavoda nuclear power plant currently has two 700 MW reactors but was designed to have five, the Cernavoda Power Plant entered commercial operation in 1996.