OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
As most who have been following my ramblings on this subject are aware, Pickering, our oldest plant, is destined to be retired starting in 2025 unless the course plotted is changed and the B units are refurbished.
This has led to what I might describe as some "acting out" at the plant. Not in a bad way, these are accolades for the old girl. In 2019, she produced 23.6TWh, a site record and 17% of Ontario's electricity. This weekend Unit 5 hit 560MW. It is rated for 516. It received an HP turbine replacement about a year ago, was a spare they had onsite. They threw it in and output has been bouncing between 535 and 540 since with a run up in the 550's early-on.
Today, Unit 6 decided to join that party and is running in the 530's. With Unit 7 at 522, this means that all the B units that are online (8 is offline for maintenance) are producing well above nameplate (they've backed off on the run-up of Unit 5):
As a nuke nut, this is frustrating, as it shows that if the B units were indeed refurbished, as was originally planned before Ontario's disastrous embarkment into the wind and solar subsidy sideshow, that output could be increased significantly. Given turbine and generator replacements (Unit 5 is on its original generator) north of 560 is easily doable. This is in-line with what's transpiring at Bruce with their refurbishment + uprates.
I don't know what the mindset is at the plant with these latest runs. To show the government that the old girl still has it? That's what I like to think is the case. Pickering is an essential component of Ontario's global leadership on low emissions generation, if enough attention were drawn to that fact I firmly believe that refurbishment would be reconsidered.
This has led to what I might describe as some "acting out" at the plant. Not in a bad way, these are accolades for the old girl. In 2019, she produced 23.6TWh, a site record and 17% of Ontario's electricity. This weekend Unit 5 hit 560MW. It is rated for 516. It received an HP turbine replacement about a year ago, was a spare they had onsite. They threw it in and output has been bouncing between 535 and 540 since with a run up in the 550's early-on.
Today, Unit 6 decided to join that party and is running in the 530's. With Unit 7 at 522, this means that all the B units that are online (8 is offline for maintenance) are producing well above nameplate (they've backed off on the run-up of Unit 5):
As a nuke nut, this is frustrating, as it shows that if the B units were indeed refurbished, as was originally planned before Ontario's disastrous embarkment into the wind and solar subsidy sideshow, that output could be increased significantly. Given turbine and generator replacements (Unit 5 is on its original generator) north of 560 is easily doable. This is in-line with what's transpiring at Bruce with their refurbishment + uprates.
I don't know what the mindset is at the plant with these latest runs. To show the government that the old girl still has it? That's what I like to think is the case. Pickering is an essential component of Ontario's global leadership on low emissions generation, if enough attention were drawn to that fact I firmly believe that refurbishment would be reconsidered.
