Dominion Conn. Millstone 2 reactor up to 96 pct

NEW YORK Nov 20 (Reuters) - Dominion Resources Inc's (D.N) 882-megawatt Unit 2 at the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut ramped up to 96 percent by early Friday from 42 percent early Thursday after exiting a refueling outage, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

The unit shut by Oct. 7.

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

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).

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 Marguerita Choy)