Bruce shuts Ontario Bruce 8 reactor due low demand

NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) - Bruce Power LP shut the 795-megawatt Unit 8 at the Bruce nuclear power station in Ontario on July 14 at the request of the grid operator for what is expected to be a brief outage due to surplus baseload generation in the province, the company said in a release.

Temperatures in Toronto will reach 23 Celsius (74 F) on Tuesday with no humidity, according to AccuWeather, keeping cooling demand low. That is a few degrees below the average high of 26 degrees C for this time of year.

Before Bruce 8 shut, all of the baseload nuclear units and most of the coal units in Ontario were available for service.

Baseload units usually operate around the clock to meet a grid's minimum generation needs.

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.

The company expects to increase Unit 8's output to about 822 MW by modifying the fuel-loading system later this year.

All of the other units remained available for service.

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.

Bruce Power LP is owned by uranium miner Cameco Corp (CCO.TO) (31.6 percent), energy company TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO) (31.6 percent), BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust, an investment entity owned by Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (31.6 percent), the Power Workers' Union (4 percent) and the Society of Energy Professionals (1.2 percent).

Bruce Power A LP, which leases the Bruce A station from OPG, was set up when Bruce Power and the government agreed to restore the A station to full service. It is a partnership among TransCanada (47.4 percent), BPC (47.4 percent), the Power Workers' Union (4 percent) and the Society of Energy Professionals (1.2 percent).

BRUCE A RESTART

The company plans to restart Units 1 and 2 in early 2010, at an estimated cost of up to C$3.4 billion.

Ontario Hydro, the former province-owned power company, shut Unit 1 in 1997 and Unit 2 in 1995 because they needed extensive upgrades.

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.

Bruce also planned to refurbish the other Bruce A units.

Bruce expects Unit 3 to remain in commercial service until at least 2011 before refurbishing the unit to increase its life to 2038 and beyond.

Unit 4 is expected to remain in service until 2016 before its refurbishment, which will increase its life until 2042.

In addition, Bruce is considering refurbishing the four Bruce B reactors and/or building new reactors, Bruce C, at the station.

In 2007, Bruce launched an environmental assessment of the possible Bruce C project that would add 4,000 MW by about 2016.

Previously, Bruce said it would need to refurbish the four Bruce B units between 2015 and 2020. The company said it would decide in the future whether to refurbish the existing units, replace them with new reactors or both. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)