Palo Verde’s Unit One Finally Returns to Service

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First reported by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) early Tuesday morning, Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station did indeed return its number one unit to service during the wee hours Thursday morning. Although the unit’s refueling and mechanical maintenance was originally scheduled to last slightly longer than seven weeks…exactly three months later the unit is now slowly ramping back up to capacity generation. Setbacks including faulty feed pumps, coolant hardware malfunctions, and a shortage of skilled labor delayed the project. Early Friday morning the unit was running at 20% of its 1,245 megawatt rating, while plant officials are keeping their fingers crossed to be at-or-near 100% capacity sometime this weekend.

The plant, located about 35 miles west of Phoenix in Tonopah, Arizona, has been the largest nuclear power producer in the United States since the mid-80s. Its three units are capable of generating over 3,800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power nearly 3½ million average Arizona homes. Palo Verde is operated by Arizona Public Service Company (APS), and owned by a consortium of seven utilities in the Southwest. Of note, APS is the largest stakeholder in the generating facility at 29.1%.

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