Friday, October 19, 2012

Figures on Costs of Power from Refurbished Point Lepreau

I won't do the math myself - at least until the unit achieves full power again, but this article contains enough figures to provide a decent estimate: 
lifetime capacity factor before refurbishment of ~84% (many, many nuclear units have seem improved annual capacity factor as focus moved from new builds to better operations);
Costs $2.4 billion
Capacity 660 MW
I'd assume the non-capital cost at 3-5 cents/kWh.
Without grabbing discount rates, etc., my guess is 9 cents/kWh would be in the ballpark.

NB Power questioned over Point Lepreau's lifespan - New Brunswick - CBC News:
NB Power has filed evidence with the regulatory board showing that it expects Point Lepreau to operate for 210,000 "effective full power hours" over 27 years.
That's virtually the same estimate it gave for the brand new Point Lepreau when it went into service in 1983.
However, the plant suffered numerous design, maintenance and operational problems and fell more than 26,000 hours short of its budgeted output before being shut for refurbishment.
That forced NB Power to absorb $450 million in debt the plant couldn't repay which still burdens the utility's balance sheet.
The utility is required to respond to all written questions about Point Lepreau next week.
Read the entire article at CBC News

1 comment:

  1. Refurbished Nuclear (AECL's technical boo boos and all) at capital cost under $4000 per installed kilowatt. This seems lower than for both solar and wind (allowing for the actual collection and conversion efficiency of solar, and the now-well-known actual output from wind).
    Can someone confirm or correct / adjust my conclusion here?
    Thanks..

    ReplyDelete