UPDATE 1-Dominion works to restart Conn. Millstone 2 reactor

(Updates with company comment)

NEW YORK Nov 16 (Reuters) - Dominion Resources Inc (D.N) was working to return the 882-megawatt Unit 2 at the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut to service, a spokesman for the company said Monday.

He could not say exactly when the unit would return but said it was in hot standby mode.

Over the weekend, the company said the unit was in hot standby mode on Nov. 15 in a report to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Electricity traders said hot standby was one of the steps a reactor passes through as it prepares to exit an outage. The traders guessed the unit would exit the outage over the next few days.

The unit shut by Oct. 7 for a refueling outage.

The unit last shut for refueling from about April 6-May 16, 2008. The unit is on an 18-month refueling cycle.

The company issued the report to the NRC after declaring an unusual event - the lowest of four NRC emergency classifications - due to a loss of power to the control room main board annunciators.

The 2,037-MW Millstone station is located in Waterford in New London County about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Hartford. There are two reactors at the station, the 882-MW Unit 2 (which entered service in 1975) and the 1,155-MW Unit 3 (1986).

The NRC renewed the plant's original 40-year operating licenses in 2005 for another 20 years until 2035 and 2045.

The NRC in August 2008 approved of Dominion's request to up-rate the generating capacity of Unit 3 by about 7 percent to about 1,230 MW. Dominion has said it would implement the up-rate during the fall 2008 refueling outage.

Unit 3 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 1,000 homes in Connecticut.

Dominion, which wholly owns Unit 2, operates the Millstone station for its owners.

Dominion (93.47 percent), Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric (4.8 percent) and Central Vermont Public Service Corp (CV.N) (1.73 percent) own Unit 3.

Dominion, of Richmond, Virginia, owns and operates about 27,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities and transmits and distributes electricity to 2.4 million customers in Virginia and North Carolina. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)