April 1, 2010

Benchmarking Nuclear Plant Staffing

Dr. Robert Peltier, PE

The EUCG Nuclear Committee has collected benchmarking data of U.S. nuclear plant staffing for many years. A summary of this highly desirable data was gleaned from EUCG databases and is now, for the first time, made public through an exclusive agreement with POWER.

Electricity consumption in the U.S. has decreased during each of the past two years — the first time that has happened since 1973 – 1975, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. Historically, electricity consumption has correlated well with the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), although electricity used per unit of GDP has been halved since 1970. Surprisingly, this trend seems to explode the long-held tenet that there is a strong statistical link between GDP growth and electricity consumption. The statistical correlation may have weakened, but a certain and economic source of electricity is undoubtedly an essential ingredient for future economic recovery (Table 1).


Table 1. Electricity use closely tracks GDP, although more loosely than in the past. Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration and the Bureau of Economic Analysis

The relationship between today’s economic doldrums and electricity consumption patterns remains unclear to analysts planning for future plants. Do the electricity generation data merely reflect this country’s recent reduced industrial production, or do they reflect accelerated adoption of energy efficiency measures, and if so, how much? Have electricity prices, rising more rapidly than wages, forced short-lived conservation on some classes of electricity users? Has the recession inequitably affected electricity-intensive industries, such as concrete and aluminum (down about 17% in 2009 alone), to skew the electricity consumption data? Has outsourcing manufacturing overseas permanently reduced demand in some regions of the U.S.? Resumption of electricity consumption growth will be an early indicator of renewed economic growth, regardless of how elastic the relationship might be.