Posted on 10/22/2012 1:22:33 PM PDT by Jyotishi
Dominion (NYSE: D) on Oct. 22 said it plans to close and decommission its 556 MW Kewaunee Power Station in Carlton, Wis., after the company was unable to find a buyer for the nuclear power plant. Pending a grid reliability review by the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO), Dominion said the station is expected to cease power production in the second quarter of 2013 and move to safe shutdown.
Dominion announced in April 2011 that it would seek to sell Kewaunee as part of a regular review of its portfolio of assets to determine which assets fit strategically and support its objectives to improve return on invested capital and shareholder value. The company was unable to find a buyer for the facility.
(Excerpt) Read more at power-eng.com ...
Losing 556 MW. Ouch.
But whatever. The reason they can’t find a buyer is because this particular plant can’t compete economically with the cheaper natural gas burning ones. Nuthin’ wrong with cheap energy...
Are you sure cheap gas is behind this ?
556 MW is a small nuke. That means it was probably built in the 60’s.
That means in a regulated state it has probably been depreciated to the point it is no longer counted in their rate base.
I doubt that, we get all our gas piped into WI from other places in the country. We’ve been hit hard when they haven’t purchased enough for a winter and have to buy extra at that point.
Evidently cheap gas is not the reason. Perhaps Govt regulation against building new nukes and/or Dominion's inability to acquire existing nukes at a desired price point.
Y’know, if I lived in a state as cold as Wisconsin, and winter was comin’ on, I’d delay the shutdown of a power plant at least until spring thaw...
An addendum: it’s not because gas is cheap in the Wisconsin area, but because it’s cheap enough elsewhere that it’s more economic for Wisconsin utilities to buy power from other places (using cheap gas plants) than to keep that plant.
Power is a goofy thing. e.g. The power from Lucky Peak Dam here at Boise, ID is purchased by Seattle (WA) Electric of all things.
What’s wrong with that is that 10 years from now we could be in a different situation and nukes take a LOOONG time to build.
Once its gone, its GONE.
Electrical Demand is different in different regions in the winter.
Most of the north does not use electric to heat their homes.
Nothing spins a meter faster than Air Conditioning.
The USS Reagan is twice that
Thermal or electrical?
Demise of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Beats me I just binged the Reagan to find out didnt look that far
Should have thought of that. I suppose having heating oil in tank at your house is safer than depending on wires to deliver your heating power. You can be warm even if there is no power.
However, getting hot is *usually* only uncomfortable. Getting cold will kill ya!
Alliant Energy of Wisconsin sold off the rights to the Palo Nuclear unit near Cedar Rapids, IA., some years ago. The Palo plant was built by Iowa Electric of Cedar Rapids before they were bought out by Alliant.
The plant was named “Duane Arnold Energy Center,” in honor of the long time IE chairman. After the power plant came on line, Mr. Arnold said the “only mistake we made is we didn’t built two of them.”
I just researched the Westinghouse reactor on these Nimitz class ships, generates 550 MWth, translates to 104 MWe to the props and probably another 50 MWe for the rest of the ship.
The Wisconsin nuke plant at 565 MWe needs somewhere like 1,880 MWth as input.
Nuke plants are about 30% efficient while the natural gas combined cycle are 50% on a cold Wisconsin day. Plus cheaper to build.
However, having our electrical system dependent on a fuel source that is difficult to store is freaking dangerous. Blow up a natural gas pipeline and you have a wide area electrical blackout as the generating plants shut down.
Some of this risk can be averted by having dual fuel gas/ oil plants; where the oil is emergency use only. A diverse generation system is the way to go.
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