William Freebairn and Wes Becker report that world nuclear generation tracked by Platts in 2014 rose 1 per cent compared to 2013, the first annual gain since the 2011 accident at Fukushima in Japan curbed global nuclear output sharply, an analysis shows. The analysis considers only the generation by the nuclear plants reporting gross generation to Platts. Those plants generated about 2.039 billion MWh in 2014. That was a slight increase from the 2.018 billion MWh in reported generation in 2013. About 350 of the world 429 nuclear units report gross generating data to Platts. The units in operation in 2014 had a gross capacity of 392.6 GW, up from about 390.9 GW in 2013, when the same number of units operated.
The global nuclear fleet made up for a lack of growth in the number of units in 2014 by increasing output of existing units through uprates. In addition, the units reporting data increased their capacity factor, meaning they were online at full capacity for longer, likely by reducing the length and number of outages. The global nuclear unit capacity factor rose to about 75.8% in 2014, well above the 69.1% in 2013, and higher than the 2012-2014 average capacity factor of 71.9%. That figure was particularly notable as it includes the 48 operable Japanese nuclear reactors, all of which are shut in the wake of the Fukushima I damage by tsunami in that country. Those units had a capacity factor of 0% in 2014. Global nuclear generation is still far below its peak in 2006 of 2.79 billion MWh, when there were more reactors online and all but a few dozen units were reporting gross output.
The original URL: http://www.platts.com/news-feature/2015/electricpower/global-nuclear-analysis/index
The number of units has declined as electricity competition has spread and more companies regard the data as proprietary. All figures are for gross generation. There has been an amazing focus on eliminating the causes of things that were detracting from capacity factors historically, such as equipment problems and human performance. .
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