SMR vendors’ projections on the levelised unit cost of electricity1 (LUEC) suggest that in many cases the designers may intend to compete with large nuclear power plants (see Figure E.2). Other SMR concepts target niche applications in remote or isolated areas where the corresponding costs of generating electricity are significantly higher than in more populated areas.

Figure E.2. Comparison of the designers’ data on SMR LUEC to the projected costs of generating
electricity by NPPs with large reactors in the corresponding countries

VVER-1200 VVER-1200

ABV WER-1200 KLT-40S VBER

OECD member countries

LUEC for NPP with SMR

LUEC for NPP with large

reactors

The key parameters

In order to analyse the economics of different SMR projects and their deployment potential, the factors affecting the competitiveness are estimated and analysed in this report.

It is expected that the deployment of SMRs foreseen in the next decade would mainly take place in regulated electricity markets with loan guarantees. For such markets, the LUEC appears to be an appropriate figure of merit. The LUEC, measured in USD per MWh, corresponds to the cost assuming certainty of production costs and stable electricity prices. In view of this, LUEC [1]
was selected as the figure of merit for all estimates, evaluations and comparative assessments carried out within this study.

The assumption of a regulated market is not correct for liberalised electricity markets where prices are not regulated. In such markets the fixed costs, the total costs and the capital-at-risk matter more than LUEC. No quantitative examinations using these factors have been performed in this study.