* Completion was planned for 2020
* Source says the delay will by years
* Supervisory board member says delay in supplier tender
* Supervisory board to debate the issue on Thursday
(Adds details, CEZ spokesman, CEZ supervisory board member
Janota)
PRAGUE, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Czech power group CEZ <>
is to delay the planned construction of new units at its Temelin
nuclear power plant, Hospodarske Noviny reported, quoting
Industry and Trade Minister Martin Kocourek.
"We already know that the completion of Temelin will be
postponed," the daily newspaper quoted Kocourek as saying.
CEZ was expected this autumn to ask bidders to submit final
offers for the construction and announce the winner of the
tender by the end of the next year. The completion date was set
for 2020.
The paper quoted an unnamed source from CEZ as saying the
delay could be "in the order of years".
CEZ, Central Europe's biggest utility and publicly listed
company, plans to build two additional units at its Temelin
plant near Austria as well as up to three other units in
neighbouring Slovakia and at its Dukovany station in the Czech
Republic.
The overall transaction is estimated to be worth up to 500
billion Czech crowns ($28.3 billion), the country's biggest ever
procurement deal.
The paper said the delay was due to the effects of the
economic crisis as it was becoming unclear whether electricity
demand in the years after 2020 would be as strong as originally
expected.
CEZ supervisory board member Eduard Janota told Reuters in a
telephone interview there was a delay in the tender for a
supplier of the new unit but he declined to give more details,
saying the issue will be debated at CEZ supervisory board
meeting on Thursday.
"There is already a delay now, because the tender should
have originally happened in autumn and it will not happen, it
will take place in the soonest possible term, which is in
spring."
"So this is the first shift that has happened, and the rest
I would leave until after tomorrow's supervisory board meeting."
Toshiba Corp <6502.T> unit Westinghouse, an alliance of
Russia's Atomstroyexport and Czech company Skoda JS, and
France's Areva <CEPFi.PA>, are bidding to build the units.
CEZ spokesman Ladislav Kriz said it has not been decided yet
whether the entire expansion plan at all the plants would be
delayed.
He said CEZ was in talks about the timetable with all the
three suppliers, who he said had sought a longer period to
complete bids and for timing of deliveries for the construction.
"Things will be clear within 14 days, one month," Kriz said.
(Reporting by Jana Mlcochova and Jan Korselt, editing by
Anthony Barker)
