PG&E Calif. Diablo Canyon reactor up to 78 pct power

NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - PG&E Corp's (PCG.N) 1,122-megawatt Diablo Canyon 1 nuclear power unit in California was at 78 percent power early Wednesday, up from just 8 percent of capacity early Tuesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its power reactor status report.

The unit, in Avila Beach, in San Luis Obispo County, about 195 miles northwest of Los Angeles, shut Monday to fix one of six feedwater heaters, part of the system that supplies feedwater to the unit's steam generators, the company said previously.

All six feedwater heaters are necessary to continuously operate the unit at full power.

Meanwhile, the adjacent 1,118-MW Unit 2 continued to run at full power on Wednesday, the NRC report said. It is slated to shut in early October for a planned month long refueling outage.

One MW powers about 700 homes in California.

PG&E, of San Francisco, owns and operates more than 6,200 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to almost 5.3 million customers and natural gas to 4.2 million customers in California. (Reporting by Eileen Moustakis; Editing by John Picinich)