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News

In 2014, USA fleet member South Texas Project’s Unit 2 led the U.S. nuclear industry in both generation and capacity factor. Unit 2 safely produced 11.632 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) last year, the highest in site history. The unit also had the highest capacity in the industry at 103.7 percent. Combined, overall site generation was the eighth highest in STP’s commercial operating history.

“By sticking to our plan and putting a renewed focus on equipment reliability, we achieved tremendous results in 2014,” said STP Nuclear Operating Company President and CEO Dennis Koehl. “Our STP team’s dedication and hard work deserve the credit for this success.”

Overall, U.S. nuclear facilities generated electricity at a record high efficiency in 2014. One hundred nuclear plants operating in 31 states posted an estimated average capacity factor of 91.9 percent, based on preliminary data compiled by the Nuclear Energy Institute. That surpasses the industry’s prior record set in 2007 by one-tenth of a percentage point. Capacity factor measures total electricity generated as a percentage of year-round potential generation.

Last year, actual electricity production from nuclear facilities was the sixth highest ever, at an estimated 798.4 billion kWh. The industry’s record high generation came in 2010, when the 104 reactors then operating produced 806.9 billion kWh of electricity.

For the past two decades, U.S. nuclear facilities have annually produced about one-fifth of the nation’s electricity supply even as total electricity demand has increased significantly.