U.S. capacity factors: Staying around 90 percent

摘要

For the better part of a decade, the message of this survey has been that the dramatic performance improvements of the 1980s and 1990s could continue for only so long, and that maintaining the level that had been reached by about 2000 would be a formidable and praiseworthy feat any time that it is accomplished. The reader has always been cautioned not to attach great significance to any specific number (such as 90), or to see the placement of specific reactors in this survey's tables as indicating special merit (or deficiency), because the performance of nearly every reactor in commercial operation is far better now than had been expected when the reactors were being built. With this in mind, the following statement should simply be taken in stride: The median three-year design electrical rating (DER) net capacity factor of the 104 power reactors in the United States in 2008-2010 was 89.67 percent; in 2005-2007 it was 90.61 percent.