BRITISH ENERGY’s chief executive has blamed staff who fail to talk to each other for fresh unplanned losses at the UK’s biggest nuclear generator.
The company refused to communicate details of what it called “human performance issues”, although Bill Coley, the chief executive, said that they were “nothing except errors in communication between staff” and denied that safety rules had been breached.
A spokesman for British Energy said. “I don’t have the detail, other than that people were not talking to each other as they should. British Energy is a manufacturer, it makes energy. Like any manufacturer, there are problems from time to time.”
The problems are thought to have occurred at Torness power station, earlier this year. As a result of this and other unplanned outages, the company downgraded its output target for the third year running from 63 terra watts per hour (TWh) to 61-63 TWh, as long as there are no further large losses.
Unions reacted with fury to Mr Coley’s remarks, made as the company reported first-quarter net profits up 368 per cent to £75 million.
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Dougie Rooney, national secretary for energy at Amicus, said that while his union fully supported what British Energy was trying to do to improve performance, including its investment programme and recruitment drive, the union had been raising several issues for some time.
Amicus has concerns over the company’s lack of technicians and has pointed out that British Energy needs to train its management in leadership skills in order to make the changes that it is looking for and engage employees.
Mr Rooney said: “I regret the chief executive’s comments about a particular power station when we are actually meeting the company to discuss this and other issues we raised with the company late last year before this incident occurred.”
Anne Douglas, national secretary of Prospect, which represents 2,000 of British Energy’s 5,000-strong workforce, said: “We thought the company had a better relationship with its employees than to drag them out in public. It is the employees who have turned this company around. Without their loyalty in pretty trying circumstances, the company would not be producing the sort of results it did today.”
British Energy was unable to elaborate yesterday on the Government’s plans to dispose of a share of its stake in the nuclear generator. The Government confirmed in June that it would sell down some of its stake, although it has not said how much. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch have been hired by the Government to help to sell British Energy shares later this year.
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Thanks to soaring power prices, British Energy shares have soared since the company was relisted after its financial restructuring in 2005.
“I am pleased with our financial results benefiting from strong electricity prices . . . However, I am not pleased with the level of unplanned losses,” Mr Coley said.