Load factors to end March 2011

摘要

Reactor performance improved in the 12 months to end of March 2011 despite the huge earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan on 11 March 2011, impacting the operation of reactors in Japan and elsewhere. Data were available for 409 reactors with more than a year's operating experience on 31 March 2011 (see Table 2). Between them they generated around 2650 TWh of electricity, achieving an average load factor of 78.4%, 33 basis points higher than for the same period in 2010. The average lifetime load factor for the 12 months to end of March 2011-72.7%-again represents a slight improvement over the 72.1% achieved for the same period last year. As usual, during the 12 months ending 31 March 2011 PWRs outperformed BWRs. The average load factor for PWRs was 82.4%, an improvement of 37 basis points over the figure achieved for the same period in 2010.