FPL Wisc. Point Beach 2 reactor up to 70 pct power

NEW YORK, May 14 (Reuters) - FPL Group Inc's (FPL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 514-megawatt Unit 2 at the Point Beach nuclear power station in Wisconsin ramped up to 70 percent power by early Wednesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

On Tuesday, the unit was operating at 28 percent of capacity after exiting a refueling outage over the past week.

The unit shut by April 7.

It last shut for refueling from Oct. 14-Nov. 17, 2006 and is on an 18-month refueling cycle.

The 1,026 MW Point Beach station is located in Two Creeks in Manitowoc County, about 35 miles southeast of Green Bay. There are 514 MW two units at the station, which entered service in 1970 and 1972.

Unit 1 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 800 homes in Wisconsin.

In 2005, the NRC renewed the plant's original 40-year operating licenses for another 20 years until 2030 and 2033.

FPL, of Juno Beach, Florida, owns and operates about 38,000 MW of generating capacity across the United States, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to more than 4.5 million customers in Florida. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)