Media Contact: Gil Alexander, (626) 302-2255
Two new technologies to be installed during 2012 will enhance plant safety and power affordability
ROSEMEAD, Calif., Jan. 10, 2012 – Southern California Edison (SCE) temporarily removed from service yesterday one of the two large generating units at its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station – Unit 2 – for a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage. During the outage SCE will continue its practice of upgrading plant hardware and systems when it is possible to enhance the safety, reliability or customer cost-effectiveness of the plant.
Since the last Unit 2 outage concluded April 11, 2010, the 1,100-megawatt generator has provided utility customers with power 24/7, with the exception of a precautionary three-day shutdown in September 2011 a grid disturbance caused. During this latest 21-month run the unit has contributed more than 16 billion kilowatt-hours to customer electricity needs. Nineteen percent of all power Edison customers use comes from nuclear generation.
Plans for the outage, and a similar Unit 3 outage scheduled for this fall, include replacing the reactor heads of both units and retrofitting the high pressure turbines with new rotating and static components.
“Key San Onofre plant systems and components, originally installed 30 years ago, have been continually upgraded with the newest technologies to ensure safe, reliable operations,” said Chief Nuclear Officer Pete Dietrich. “For example, the plant’s largest components – steam generators – are just two years old and represent the safest, most efficient 21st century machinery. And many of the plant’s original analog control systems have been upgraded to smart digital technologies.”
The new high-pressure turbine components SONGS plans to install during 2012 will increase the plant’s efficiency and generating capacity. The design and construction of the new reactor heads, including the use of “single forge” manufacturing that features fewer welds, will be even safer, while reducing customer costs by shortening maintenance outages.
The planned upgrades will cost approximately $280 million, and will have a net positive economic benefit for customers during the current license period. The cost impact on customers will be roughly 0.5 percent of total current rates.
Each of the 2012 outages will create approximately 1,700 temporary jobs.
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.
-###-
