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Bruce Power LP shut the 750-megawatt Unit 5 at the Bruce A nuclear power station in Ontario on April 28 to allow workers to repair control room computer equipment, the company said in a release.
The company expects the unit to return in a few days.
The 6,261 MW Bruce station is located on the eastern shore of Lake Huron north of Kincardine, about 155 miles (250 km) northwest of Toronto. There are four 750 MW Units 1-4 at the A station (which entered service in 1977-1979) and three 822 MW Units 5-7 and one 795 MW Unit 8 at the B station (1984-1987).
All of the other units were available for service.
Electricity traders noted the company will likely shut Unit 3 in early May for about a month for planned maintenance.
Unit 3 last shut from April 25-May 16, 2007. It is on a 12-month maintenance cycle.
Before the company replaces the steam generators on Units 3 and 4, it will continue to shut the units for maintenance more often than the Bruce B units (about every 12 months for Bruce A versus about 30 months for Bruce B) but for shorter outages (1 month for Bruce A versus 2 months for Bruce B).
The company plans to replace the steam generators in Unit 3 and 4 by 2013, after restarting Unit 2 in late 2009 and Unit 1 in early 2010. The cost to return Units 1 and 2 is estimated at C$3.1 to C$3.4 billion.
Ontario Hydro, the former province-owned power company, shut Units 1 and 2 in 1997 and 1995, respectively, because they needed extensive upgrades.
The company expects to increase the output of Unit 8 to about 822 MW by modifying the fuel-loading system by 2009.
One MW powers about 1,000 homes in Ontario.
Bruce Power LP, of Tiverton, Ontario, operates the entire Bruce complex and leases the Bruce B station from Ontario Power Generation, the province-owned generating company.
Bruce Power A LP, which leases the Bruce A station from OPG, was set up when Bruce Power and the government agreed to restore the A station to full service. It is a partnership among TransCanada (47.4 percent), BPC (47.4 percent), the Power Workers’ Union (4 percent) and the Society of Energy Professionals (1.2 percent).
BRUCE A RESTART
The return of Units 1 and 2 would replace more than 20 percent of the province’s 6,400 MW of coal-fired generation, which the government wants to shut for health and environmental reasons by 2014.
Bruce is also considering refurbishing the four Bruce B reactors and/or building new reactors at the station.
In January 2007, Bruce launched an environmental assessment of the possible new build project that will take about three years to complete. The project would add 4,000 MW of electricity to the grid by about 2016.
Bruce said it would need to refurbish all four Bruce B units between 2015 and 2020. The company said it would decide in the future whether it makes economic sense to refurbish the existing units, replace them with new reactors or do both. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)
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