JENKINSVILLE — South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), principal subsidiary of SCANA Corporation, returned Unit 1 at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station to the electrical grid on June 1. This completed the scheduled maintenance and refueling outage that began April 8.
This refueling outage followed V.C. Summer’s second breaker-to-breaker operating cycle. A breaker-to-breaker run is an industry term recognizing a plant that operates continuously between refueling outages. V.C. Summer Unit 1 was connected to the grid continuously for 493 days, an energy production achievement for the station.
“A breaker-to-breaker run means that Unit 1 supplied our customers with electricity day and night since December 2015,” said George Lippard, SCE&G vice president of nuclear operations. “It also signifies that we operated and maintained the plant safely and reliably with no unplanned maintenance outages for its entire 18-month operating cycle.”
Approximately one-third of V.C. Summer’s 157 fuel assemblies are replaced every 18 months. Refueling outages also allow SCE&G to perform preventive maintenance work that cannot be performed when the reactor is operating. While the 966-megawatt facility was out of service, SCE&G’s other generating plants provided electric power for its customers.
One major project during this refueling outage was the installation of a new reactor vessel head. Installed as scheduled, the new reactor vessel head is an investment in even greater safety and efficiency in Unit 1 so that it can continue to supply clean, reliable electricity for many years to come.
During this refueling outage, approximately 1,100 supplemental personnel joined permanent SCE&G Unit 1 employees to support work activities. These additional workers live in the community and patronize local businesses, providing a boost to the local economy. From labor to equipment and material orders, work during the refueling outage involved more than 150 South Carolina companies, benefiting the state’s economy.