The Czech anti-monopoly office preliminarily rejected on Thursday (31 October) the complaints made by EDF and Westinghouse against Czech energy company CEZ’s decision to continue exclusive negotiations with nuclear constructor KHNP to build two reactors at the Dukovany power station.
The authority noted in its decision that both complaints were inadmissible because they fell outside legal grounds, as the tender was conducted under a security exemption.
This exemption in the Czech law allows CEZ to proceed without complying with the general rules for public procurement. CEZ argues that bidders were informed about the exemption for constructing new nuclear reactors since the beginning of the tender, meaining their complaints are now inadmissible.
At the end of August, the two French and American nuclear manufacturers that were sidelined in the call for tenders, EDF and Westinghouse, went before the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition (UOHS) to challenge the exclusive negotiations undertaken between South Korea’s KHNP and CEZ, as the latter announced in mid-July.
Westinghouse’s main point was that the KHNP bid implied impossible export of Westinghouse’s licence without the agreement of the relevant US public authorities.
EDF questioned if the tendering process “adheres to the principles of fair trade and transparency,” arguing that KHNP’s guarantees on price may be of a nature to commit South Korea’s public finances, if the costs announced in the bid are exceeded.
However, the decision of 31 October is only preliminary. The UOHS has invited EDF and Westinghouse to appeal the decision within two months and maintains a veto on the signing the contract between CEZ and KHNP, as reported yesterday by Czech press and Euractiv.
EDF and Westinghouse declined to comment, as the two companies are still studying the decision.
[Edited by Owen Morgan]