FOCUS ON ASIA | INDIA


JNPP project will be crucial towards meeting this objective. EDF has declined to be an investment partner, with finance for the project set to be generated from NPCIL’s balance sheet and the Government of India. The French supplier will however facilitate discussions between NPCIL and financial institutions such as BPI France and SFIL, who support a French Government export credit scheme, for a significant portion of the required loans. A sovereign guarantee from the Government of India will be necessary to secure this loan package. EDF probably understands that JNPP’s competitiveness


Above: The Jaitapur nuclear power plant will be built on India’s Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri district in the southwestern part of Maharashtra, 400km north of Mumbai


V The Indian nuclear establishment has perhaps decided that foregoing localisation is a necessary tradeoff to reduce project risk — and to ensure performance safety, given China’s recent experience with Taishan 1. To mitigate Indian concerns about the EPR design,


France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) has in the past shared with DAE the assessment of the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) with respect to the EPR design’s post-Fukushima safety appraisal and assured India that there will be no additional costs to ensure the EPR’s safety in the post-Fukushima regulatory environment. It would be surprising if DAE does not desire further inputs with respect to the recent incident at Taishan 1. Importantly, EDF’s binding offer specifies that ‘as the owner and future operator of the plant, during the construction phase, NPCIL may benefit from EDF and its partners’ assistance, notably regarding the sharing of other EPR project-related lessons learned’.


The Indian nuclear utility NPCIL will be responsible for


the construction and commissioning of all of the six units at JNPP. It will also secure all necessary permits and consents in India. EDF and its industrial partners will assist NPCIL during the construction phase. Environmental and coastal regulation zone clearances for JNPP had already been granted by the relevant Indian Ministry in 2010, and this clearance seems to have been extended further. The requisite land for JNPP is already in NPCIL’s


possession and pre-project activities such as geo- technical investigation, boundary wall construction, construction power supply, site office for construction staff, meteorological tower, laboratory buildings and approach road etc. have been completed by the company. NPCIL’s application for site clearance for the project is currently under review by AERB. Although NPCIL has agreed to forego high domestic content levels, it cannot compromise on the competitiveness of the project. Apparently, the objective is to keep the initial power tariff from these EPRs at or below ₹6.5 ($.087) per unit, which will be competitive with other baseload sources in a decarbonising environment. Given that the project will be financed on a 70:30 debt- equity basis, the nature of the loan package secured for the


24 | August 2021 | www.neimagazine.com


will require some degree of localisation in any scenario and has therefore been working ‘in-depth’ towards identifying Indian suppliers for the JNPP project. Some 200 Indian companies have already been pre-qualified by EDF for this purpose. Moreover, EDF knows that for the JNPP project to be successful it has to enthuse India’s political leadership with respect to industrialisation and employment goals. In any case, cross pollination between EDF’s existing supply chain and various local players is a prerequisite for negotiating local environmental, labour and safety regulation issues. For JNPP 3-6, EDF is likely to delegate some purchasing activities and studies to local companies. EDF believes that 35-40 percent localisation will be achieved for the JNPP project as a whole (i.e. all six units), which is expected to span some 15 years. The stepwise approach to localisation is acceptable to NPCIL, which wants to prepare Indian industry for building the IPWR in the future. The IPWR design will incorporate both Western and


Russian approaches and the desire to absorb French nuclear codes and standards remains a driver behind DAE’s continued interest in JNPP. To build capacity EDF will setup an engineering platform in India, which will carry out part of the detailed engineering studies and all execution plans. EDF’s strategy also includes the launch of a pre-feasibility


study, conducted by it in association with International Institute of Nuclear Energy and Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, to establish a centre of excellence in India to train engineers and technicians, and to support the development of the necessary set of skills for the project.


Long term goals Overall, India continues to see the growth of its civil nuclear sector as an essential ingredient for meeting its industrial and decarbonisation goals. JNPP is expected to have an installed capacity of 9.6GWe,


and generate up to 75 terawatt hours per year thereby avoiding the emission of 80 million tons of CO2


per year.


Almost 10GWe of emission-free baseload power would be very welcome indeed for India’s western grid, which will have to support considerable manufacturing growth in the next two decades. France’s involvement in India’s nuclear expansion plans


will also provide further legitimacy to India’s peculiar nuclear liability regime and will help New Delhi set the tone for its negotiations with other potential Western partners for other light water reactor sites that have in- principle approval. Indeed, France could well emerge as a ‘new Russia’ for India. At the moment, all eyes are set on the signing of a binding framework agreement for JNPP, something that EDF expects to have in the bag sooner rather than later. ■


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