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    • Electrical equipment failures trigger every TVA nuclear plant in 2024
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    Electrical equipment failures trigger every TVA nuclear plant in 2024

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    Your workhorses Tennessee Valley Authority the power system hasn’t always worked so well this year.

    At each of the utility’s three nuclear plants, electrical equipment failure led to what TVA classifies as forced outages, meaning operators cannot plan more than 10 days before a unit goes offline, Matt Rasmussen said , TVA’s senior vice president of nuclear operations. . These are separate from routine refueling and maintenance outages, which are planned well in advance.

    The included forced outages are caused by the failure of a main generator at the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant outside Chattanooga, which must be replaced and won’t be back online until 2025.

    The outages were not due to failures on the nuclear reactor side of the plants, but rather to components of the secondary electrical side, such as exciters and transformers.

    TVA’s seven nuclear reactors at three plants — Alabama’s Browns Ferry, Sequoyah and Watts Bar — are capable of generating enough electricity to power nearly 5 million homes and employ more than 3,000 people.

    Nuclear plants are a source of pride for TVA, providing 42 percent of its power in 2023, although the figure has fallen to 39 percent this year, according to an annual financial report filed on Nov. 14.

    When electrical equipment failed at the Browns Ferry and Watts Bar plants, the federal company was able to respond more quickly. Operators replaced a backup transformer at Browns Ferry and brought the unit back online in 11 days, a quick turnaround by industry standards, Rasmussen said.

    Replacing the TVA nuclear generator will cost $82 million

    TVA’s Sequoyah Unit 2, one of the plant’s two systems, tripped on July 30 after the main generator failed. The utility has already planned to work on the generator as part of a $6 billion program to extend the life of its nuclear plantsbut moved the project up after the break.

    The facility, which can generate enough power for around 675,000 homes, will be offline until the project is completed in spring 2025. Other TVA power sources such as natural gas and pumped storageit will make up for the lost generation.

    As of Sept. 30, the end of TVA’s fiscal year, the company had spent $25 million on the Sequoyah generator project. It expects to spend another $57 million to complete it, according to TVA’s annual financial report.

    The performance of certain parts of VAT’s workload, such as finance and power plant operations, has a direct effect on how much its directors are paid.

    After the utility missed nuclear performance targets, Tim Rausch, TVA’s Chief Nuclear Officer, saw the smallest pay increase among the company’s top executives. His total compensation of $3.3 million was a 19 percent increase from last year.

    TVA wants nuclear plants to operate for 80 years

    Browns Ferry, the strongest plant in the seven-state TVA system, turned 50 in August. TVA submitted a license renewal application for the plant in January, which would extend its life by 20 years after the current licenses for the three units expire between 2033 and 2036.

    If approved, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would extend the life of Browns Ferry to 80 years, a milestone no nuclear power plant has reached. The agency has already renewed its licenses to 80 years for a handful of plantsincluding Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point plant in Miami-Dade County.

    TVA plans to submit license renewal applications for each of its nuclear power plants.

    After decades of safety concerns and disappointing performance of its nuclear fleet, TVA’s investment has seen all seven units receive a stamp of excellence from Institute of Nuclear Operations for the first time last year.

    “We have focused on moving the TVA nuclear fleet from what was chronically in the bottom half of the industry in terms of performance to the top quartile and have been successful in doing so over the past five years,” said TVA CEO Jeff Lyash. at a quarterly financial call.

    Forced outages at nuclear plants will not impact TVA’s ability to receive 80-year operating licenses, Rasmussen said. The utility’s nuclear life extension program, which will invest $6 billion through around 2038 in plant upgrades, will bring TVA closer to its ambitious goals.

    “There will be very few pieces of equipment that will not be touched and improved,” Rasmussen told Knox News. “We will be the largest nuclear fleet in the world. We don’t say it in our mouths, we say it. We have demonstrated that we can achieve this.”

    To meet its goal of a net-zero carbon network by 2050, TVA relies not only on its traditional nuclear plants but also small modular nuclear reactors. The TVA Board of Trustees has allocated $350 million to develop advanced nuclear technology at the Clinch River Site in Oak Ridge, which received an early siting permit in 2019.

    TVA plans to submit a construction permit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for GE Hitachi’s 300-megawatt design in 2025 and could commission the first small reactors in the early 2030s.

    Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. E-mail [email protected].

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