Every Megawatt Counts — Nuclear Plant Uprate Approved

While other companies contemplate early retirement for some nuclear plants due to economic woes, DTE Electric Co. is working to bump up the capacity of its nuclear unit.

On Feb. 10, the company received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to increase the generating capacity of the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant by 19 MW. Although the power uprate is minimal—raising plant capacity by 1.6%—it seems to underscore the need for utilities to squeeze every last megawatt out of operating units in an attempt to keep them profitable. Many plants, both nuclear and fossil-fueled alike, are finding that current market rates for electricity are making it difficult to make ends meet.

Exelon executives noted, during a conference call on Feb. 6 to review fourth quarter and full year 2013 earnings, that some of its nuclear units are unprofitable in the current market environment due to low prices and what it called “bad energy policy.” The company suggested that if a path to sustainable profits were not observed in the coming year, it would be obligated to shut units down to avoid long-term losses.

It wouldn’t be the first. Dominion made that decision in 2012 when it decided to retire its Kewaunee nuclear plant, which came offline permanently on May 7, 2013. The company noted at the time that the decision was purely due to economics, because only two years earlier the NRC had approved the company’s request for a 20-year license extension.

Fermi 2 doesn’t appear to be in the same situation at the present time, at least according to the company website. DTE seems to be holding out hope that a new unit could even be added to the Fermi site. The company filed a Combined License Application (COLA) in September 2008 and, although it has not committed to building a new plant, DTE continues to preserve the option for the future.

The plant—located in Newport, Mich., on the shores of Lake Erie—began a refueling outage on Feb. 10. The uprate will be completed during the shutdown increasing the generating capacity from 1,179 MW to 1,198 MW.

—Aaron Larson, associate editor (@AaronL_Power, @POWERmagazine)