Load factors to end March 2013

摘要

In the first quarter of 2013, nuclear generation was down by,around 3.5%, year-on-year, according to data we collected. The 404 reactors listed in Table 2 generated a total of 618.7 TWh of electricity, operating at an average load factor of 74.9% during the first quarter of 2013. Performance was down compared with the first quarter of 2012, which saw 399 units achieve an average load factor of 75.4%, generating some 635 TWh of electricity. A total of 263 pressurized water reactors (258 GW) generated around 447 TWh of electricity in the first three months of 2013, operating at an average load factor of 79.0%, down slightly from 79.6% in Q1 2012. The average first-quarter load factor for boiling water reactors (83 units; 81 GW) also fell from 64.7% to 59.5% in 2013, with the second-most-common reactor type generating over 107 TWh of electricity during Q1. In contrast, the performance of pressurized heavy water reactors (45 units; 25 GW) improved slightly from 74.9% in the first quarter of 2012 to 75.8% in 2013, perhaps thanks to the restart of Bruce 1&2 in Canada in September/October 2012.