Major UK energy producer British Energy has suffered further losses to its share price after admitting that restarts at two of its nuclear energy facilities would be delayed until March.
British Energy recently experienced a fall in its share price after revealing extensive maintenance problems at a number of its power facilities. Now, the energy firm has stated that four reactors at its Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B facilities will remain out of service until March.
In a statement, British Energy said that it has largely completed inspection and repair of boiler tube bifurcations at all four units at Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B. However, inspections of related components revealed the need for extra repairs, which will continue until March.
The news effectively means that British Energy will continue to produce energy below capacity. This has already hurt shareholder and market confidence, causing its share price to fall.
However, British Energy hopes to claw back some lost generating time by bringing forward the planned outage of both units at Hunterston B from May 2007 to correspond with current work.