Mechanical and electrical headaches have pushed first power at Hinkley Point C back yet another year – with the price tag swelling by £1.4bn to £48bn at today’s prices.

EDF has confirmed lower than expected productivity on the vast electromechanical installation programme means Unit 1 is now scheduled to start up in 2030.

That is a year later than the previous best-case 2029 target, itself already two years behind the earlier 2027 revised timetable and five years adrift of the original 2025 online date set when the project was approved in 2016.

The latest estimate pegs construction at £35bn in 2015 prices – equivalent to £48bn today.

In annual results, EDF said civil works at Unit 1 had reached 94% by concrete volume by the end of last year, the 24 primary loop welds for the reactor were finished in January and major safety injection pumps are now installed.

Unit 2’s dome has been lifted into place and the reactor pressure vessel delivered.

But the MEH programme remains behind schedule despite improved installation rates in the second half of 2025. EDF said recent momentum provides “a reasonable foundation” to deliver the revised timetable.

EDF also revealed the Hinkley Point project had received £1.6bn payment from Sizewell C in return for expertise it supplied to the replica Suffolk nuclear power station project.

Sizewell C is currently projected to cost £38bn at 2024 prices, based on achieving major savings from lessons learned during Hinkley’s construction.