Dutch utility EPZ says that an agreement signed on 3rd February 2005 will enable the Borssele nuclear power plant to increase its generating capacity by at least 30 megawatts (MW) from 2006.
The agreement between EPZ, which operates the single-unit plant, and Siemens Holland involves an investment of about 43 million euros (EUR). A new inner casting including new rotor and blades for the turbine, new water separators, replacing the turbine’s measuring, control and safety system and replacing the generator stator “by way of a precaution”.
Siemens was chosen for the project after a European call for tenders.
EPZ said the capacity increase would be introduced during the plant’s annual outage in 2006. Some of the fuel elements in the reactor will be replaced, in addition to “a great deal of maintenance”, extensive periodic inspections and tests.
The 449 MW pressurised water reactor (PWR) started operation in 1973. In addition to Borssele, EPZ has a 405 MW coal-fired power plant, a 12 MW wind park and an 18 MW gas turbine. EPZ said: “Although these plants in the Dutch production fleet have a modest capacity, they nevertheless supply a relatively large proportion of the national power production thanks to their high deployment: around 7% comes from EPZ.”
EPZ said it supplied 6.4 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity to the national grid in 2004 – 3.6 TWh of which came from Borssele and 2.79 from the coal-fired plant. The gas turbine and wind park contributed the remainder. Borssele had an availability factor in 2004 of more than 91%.
