In a brief statement, TETAŞ said its board of directors had unanimously decided to scrap the tender under Article 31 of the bid specifications, which gives TETAŞ the right to cancel the tender after the bid envelopes are opened, without any legal liability. The article also reads that the bidding parties may not make any claims due to the cancellation of the tender.TETAŞ had held the tender for the construction and first 15 years of operation of the nuclear power plant on Sept. 24, 2008 and a consortium composed of Russian companies Atomstroyexport and Inter RAO UES and the Ciner Group’s Park Teknik won it as the sole bidder. The Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK) approved the technical aspects of the consortium’s bid and sent the bid for the Cabinet’s evaluation. The Cabinet sent its opinion to TETAŞ and entered a two-month assessment period, scheduled to end on Nov. 24.
The decision to cancel was no surprise as the tender was already in jeopardy due to a recent verdict by the Turkish Council of State which ruled the tender legally invalid over issues such as power pricing. Upon loud criticism over the high price of the bid, the consortium had lowered its offer. The new price was $0.134-$0.154 per kilowatt hour (kWh), 27 percent lower than its original bid but still approximately double the current rates.
Sources close to the Energy Ministry say the ministry has already started plans to restart the tender for the plant in Mersin’s Akkuyu district, on the Mediterranean coast, and launch a second tender to build and operate a nuclear power plant in Sinop on the Black Sea in 2010. Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said on Monday of last week that Turkey will launch the second of three planned tenders in three to four months.
Turkey is seeking to cover an imminent shortfall in electricity as well as cut its dependence on foreign energy resources, mainly natural gas. The government’s plan was to designate atomic power an essential source of energy, meeting at least one-fifth of Turkey’s power needs within the next two decades.
The government guarantees 15 years of power purchases to encourage investment in the plant, but the winning companies still have to charge a premium to recoup nearly $8 billion in costs.
Turkey has cancelled four previous attempts to build a nuclear plant, with plans stretching back to the late 1950s, due to the high cost and environmental concerns.
The decision to cancel also had another dimension as regards international politics. The plant was part of a major push of deals Turkey had agreed with Russia earlier this year to increase cooperation on energy, such as Turkey’s permission for Russia’s South Stream natural gas pipeline to pass through its territorial waters and Russia’s promise to provide oil to Turkey’s Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline project.
National
