Hinkley Point C £35bn update: schedule and cost lens for project engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
Hinkley Point C’s first EPR reactor unit will now start generating power in 2030, as EDF Energy confirms project costs have risen to £35bn in 2015 prices, almost double the original budget. The twin-unit plant, designed for around 3.2GW gross output, remains based on the Flamanville and Taishan EPR reference designs, which have themselves faced schedule and cost overruns. Civil and nuclear contractors will need to manage prolonged high-intensity works on the 650ha Somerset site, with extended use of deep excavations, heavy lifts and complex reinforced concrete structures.
Technical Brief
- Longer construction duration increases cumulative geotechnical monitoring needs for deep excavations and temporary works stability.
Our Take
Within our 752 Infrastructure stories, very few schemes approach the £35bn scale of Hinkley Point C, which effectively makes EDF Energy’s project a cost and schedule benchmark for subsequent UK nuclear and large baseload power proposals.
A near twofold cost increase versus the 2015 estimate signals substantial exposure to inflation and design/construction risk, so UK clients on other mega-projects in our Projects-tagged coverage are likely to face tougher scrutiny on contingency, risk-sharing and contract strategy.
With Unit 1 now not expected to generate until 2030, system planners will need to rely longer on life-extension and reinforcement of existing assets, a pattern echoed across other long-horizon Infrastructure pieces where delayed commissioning shifts focus to interim grid and capacity upgrades.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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