Approval of Switzerland’s nuclear power phase-out initiative later this month will mean a $2.56 billion loss for Alpiq, the Swiss utility said in a statement Monday.
The Swiss government moved to phase out nuclear power in the wake of the 2011 reactor meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, drawing up the Energy Strategy 2050. The initiative calls for the gradual closure of Switzerland’s four nuclear plants, without any mandatory shutdown dates.
Switzerland’s Green Party has proposed a more extreme drawdown, calling for a 45-year operating limit for existing plants. Swiss citizens will vote on that plan on Nov. 27. If approved, the country’s Mühleberg and Beznau plants would close by 2017, while the Gösgen and Leibstadt facilities would shut down in 2024 and 2029, respectively. Alpiq has a 40 percent interest in Gösgen, which was commissioned in 1979, and 32.4 percent interest in Leibstadt, which was commissioned in 1984.
The Swiss utility contended that rejection of the Green Party’s proposal is also not optimal, as the status quo would continue, in which nuclear power production costs exceed market prices and nuclear plants cannot operate competitively. Still, Alpiq argued that continued long-term operation of the country’s nuclear plants is the “least economically damaging variant” for the company.
“A premature shut-down means that revenues of long-term continuing operation will be lost, while most of the total costs until decommissioning are fixed and will be incurred regardless of the useful life,” the statement said. “Investments that have already been made or which are still needed could not be amortised over the remaining useful life and payments into the fund for the financing of the shut-down and disposal will increase considerably due to the shorter useful life.”
