BRITISH Energy yesterday outlined its plans to achieve control all 20 nuclear reactors in the Canadian province of Ontario as part of a ''public-private partnership'' embracing the provincial government, the US electricity generator PECO Energy and Canadian private sector investors.
Vice-chairman Robin Jeffrey unveiled the company's vision of this group, to be called CanaGen Energy, at a business lunch in Toronto.
But Jeffrey, who has just taken up a new post as British Energy's chief representative in North America, said it would ''some months'' before the Edinburgh-based nuclear generator submits a formal a proposal to the Canadian authorities.
The Ontario government is in the process of privatising the state electricity company Ontario Hydro, and British Energy, with limited opportunities for expansion at home, is keen to take over the running of its nuclear power stations.
These function inefficiently at present and eight of their 20 reactors have been shut down completely.
But Jeffrey said his company had the expertise to improve the performance of Ontario's reactors in a way that would benefit all concerned and in an interview with Canada's Financial Post newspaper earlier this week he spoke of reopening at least some of those that have closed.
The Ontario provincial government, which has guaranteed
Canadian $32bn (#14bn) of Ontario Hydro loans, would get a better financial return, he added. It would receive cash up front from selling equity in the plants and continuing share of their profits.
And, of course, British Energy and its North American private sector partners would hope to make a juicy profit.
''Canada has always been a leader in nuclear technology and
. . . our view is that Candu
technology is robust,'' Jeffrey said.
''We are serious about investing in all the plants, at Bruce, at
Pickering and at Darlington.''
Until a few weeks ago Jeffrey ran Scottish Nuclear, the British Energy subsidiary which operates the Torness and Hunterston B power stations in Scotland.
He told his audience at a British Canadian Chamber of Trade and Commerce lunch that eight years ago the UK's advanced gas cooled reactors (AGRs) were ''the dunces of the international league table . . . the worst performing nuclear reactor type in the world.'' But now, as a result of better management implementing simpler and safer procedures, the AGRs had become ''the world's best performing reactor type''. Generating costs had halved and productivity per employee had more than doubled.
Jeffrey said the British Energy experience had proved that ''investors can become familiar with nuclear power as a safe, profitable and environmentally friendly means of producing electricity''.
The company was eager to break into Canada in partnership with Philadelphia-based PECO because the US generator had ''a deep understanding of electricity markets in North America,'' he added.
British Energy and PECO have already formed a separate joint venture to buy and operate second- hand nuclear power plants on the Eastern Seaboard of the US.
But Jeffrey said they were working in Ontario on a different basis. ''Our collaboration in
Canada, to be called CanaGen Energy, has a different objective. Here we want to be part of a
public-private partnership.''
''We would like this public-private partnership to have a strong ongoing participation from the provincial government and we also believe that Canadian private sector investors would be keen to participate,'' he added.
British Energy already has a good idea of the opportunities and pitfalls offered by Ontario Hydro since it has been acting as a consultant to the company for more than a year.
But it could face competition for control of its nuclear power plants from US rivals such as Duke Energy.
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