Sizewell C: is it value for money to build a new nuclear power station?
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will hold an evidence session on Monday 8 June at 1pm as it scrutinises Sizewell C.
Meeting details
Sizewell C, a planned large-scale nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast, is projected to cost up to £47.7bn, and will be able to generate around 7% of the UK’s current electricity demand. The National Audit Office warned in May that the novel financing structure for Sizewell C, which places more risks on taxpayers and consumers than other electricity projects, needs these risks to be correspondingly closely monitored by government as a result.
Electricity generated by Sizewell C will be more expensive to generate than from renewables. However, government believes that it will help deliver a net-zero electricity system at a lower overall cost than alternative systems without new nuclear capacity, with intermittent renewables requiring additional transmission infrastructure and reserve generation capacity. The PAC will likely probe these assumptions as part of its evidence session.
The session will also likely scrutinise the joint venture arrangement, under which private investors are the majority shareholder, with the PAC likely to explore how government intends to oversee taxpayer and consumer risks from its position as a minority shareholder. Another likely topic of discussion will be the road to the deal and government’s efforts to find private investors - government injected £5bn into the project by November ’25, prior to the deal being completed, risking billions in taxpayer funds if the deal had not materialised.