SHUTDOWNS at two British Energy plants will cost the financially troubled company as much as £30m.

British Energy warned last week that the closures of Sizewell B, in Suffolk, and Heysham, Lancashire, would have a material impact on its finances.

Yesterday, the company put a figure of between £25m and £30m on the disruption, which includes covering output already sold to the National Grid. The two plants are expected to reopen by the middle of this month.

In a restructuring update, British Energy, which operates its largest power station in Hartlepool, also warned that "increased volatility" in electricity prices - caused by the low level of excess capacity in the UK market - had continued to put pressure on its resources.

The nuclear generator, which supplies one-fifth of the UK's power needs, narrowly escaped being placed into administration last month before it secured the agreement of banks and bondholders to write off almost £1.3bn in debt.

As part of the deal, the Government will meet some of the company's future nuclear decommissioning liabilities.

Ministers have also bailed out the company, with British Energy reporting that it had £94m remaining of a £210m loan facility provided by the Government in September last year.

It also has cash resources of £375m, although £338m of this has been deposited as collateral in support of its operating requirements.

With the debt-for-equity restructuring deal requiring the support of three-quarters of bondholders, British Energy said 88 per cent of creditors had so far signed up to the terms of the financial overhaul.

However, the European Commission's failure to support the state-aid element of the restructuring means that the company could yet be forced into insolvency.