2004 performance of German nuclear power plants

The 2004 Annual Report by the VGB PowerTech Committee on "Nuclear Power Plant Operation" also summarizes the performance of the nuclear power plants in operation in Germany. The eighteen nuclear generating units in operation in Germany in 2004 with an aggregate installed capacity of 21,693 MWe (gross) and 20,643 MWe((net)), respectively, converted a total of 167 billion kWh of nuclear power into electrical energy and made available, respectively, 156 billion kWh net. Especially due to higher availabilities of some plants, this is approx. 2 billion kWh (gross) more than in 2003. The reliability of plant operation is underlined by the high average availability in terms of time of 87.66%. The technical safety indicators continue to be good for 2004. Releases of radioactive substances were very low, far below the licensed levels. There were no accidents. Plant performance, safety-related events, major repair and backfitting measures are documented in the report. Comparisons of capacity availability and capacity utilization clearly show the competitiveness of nuclear electricity also in a deregulated electricity market. Because of their favorable cost structures, all plants were operated largely in the baseload regime; following requests by their load dispatchers, some plants were run for some time in the load following and frequency stabilization regimes, respectively. The Technical Committee of VGB PowerTech e.V. has been a forum for exchanging operating experience of nuclear power plants for more than thirty years. Participants are operators of nuclear power plants in Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.