UPDATE 1-Ontario Bruce 1 & 2 reactor restarts delayed

(Adds background)

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO) on Wednesday said the return of the 750-megawatt Units 1 and 2 at the Bruce A nuclear power station in Ontario would be delayed until mid 2011 for Unit 2 and about four months later for Unit 1.

Previously, Bruce said the units would return in 2010.

A spokesman at TransCanada, which released its earnings Wednesday, said the company would answer questions about Bruce later this morning on a conference call.

In the earnings release, TransCanada said as of Sept. 30, 2009, Bruce had incurred about C$3.1 billion in costs for the refurbishment of Units 1 and 2 and work was about 75 percent complete.

TransCanada said the delay was mitigated by the previously announced extension of the operating lives of Unit 3 to 2011 and Unit 4 to 2016, with later life extensions expected with additional reactor optimization activities.

The 6,261 MW Bruce station is located in Tiverton on the eastern shore of Lake Huron about 155 miles (250 km) northwest of Toronto. There are four 750 MW units, 1 to 4, at the A station, which entered service in 1977-1979, and three 822 MW units, 5 to 7, and one 795 MW unit, 8, at the B station, which entered service in 1984-1987.

In the past, Bruce said it planned to spend up to C$3.4 billion to restart Units 1 and 2. Ontario Hydro, the former province-owned power company, shut Unit 1 in 1997 and Unit 2 in 1995 because they needed extensive upgrades.

BRUCE AND COAL

The return of Units 1 and 2 would replace more than 20 percent of the province's 6,400 MW of coal-fired generation, which the government wants to shut by 2014 for health and environmental reasons.

The province's power grid operator said the delay on getting the Bruce Units 1 and 2 in service would not affect the planned 2010 shut down of two coal units at Ontario Power Generation's Nanticoke plant and another two at OPG's Lambton plant.

"The coal plant shutdowns were not dependent on the return of the Bruce units," a spokeswoman for the grid operator said.

After Units 1 and 2 return, Bruce said it will focus on refurbishing the remaining Units 3-8 rather than build new reactors at Bruce.

In the past, Bruce said it would start working on Unit 3 by about 2011, Unit 4 by about 2016 and the Bruce B units sometime between 2015 and 2020.

One MW powers about 1,000 homes in Ontario.

Bruce Power LP, of Tiverton, Ontario, operates the entire Bruce complex and leases the Bruce B station from Ontario Power Generation, the province-owned generating company.