The Columbia Generating Station nuclear power plant, operated by the non-profit Energy Northwest near Richland, Washington, keeps breaking its electricity generation records, including for zero-carbon generation.
Columbia recently achieved its eighth monthly electricity generation record in just a 12-month period, producing 850 million kWhs of zero-carbon electricity in August, and 830 million kWhs in September. That's equivalent to over 10 billion kWh per year.
The nuclear plant produces enough zero-carbon electricity to power Seattle on its own.
Energy Northwest operates nuclear, solar, hydroelectric and wind facilities to produce an ideal non-fossil fuel energy mix. But it’s their Columbia Generating Station nuclear plant that keeps generating records.
“Every record helps further de-carbonize our environment and keep our state electric bills the second-lowest in the nation,” said CEO Brad Sawatzke.
During the August heatwave, the federal Bonneville Power Administration, issued several “no- touch” requests for the nuclear plant, asking it to not stop production for any reason, wanting the plant to keep producing power no matter what.
As temperatures rose to triple digits, so did the price of energy from wholesale power markets. But throughout August, as Market prices peaked at more than 20 cents/kilowatt-hour, Columbia’s cost of power remained steady at only 3 cents/kilowatt-hour.
Since Energy Northwest is a not-for-profit state agency, Columbia’s electricity is always sold at-cost to Bonneville and delivered throughout its eight-state service area.
“During these periods, Bonneville needs every full-time megawatt they can get,” said Sawatzke. The four full-time sources of power in the Northwest are carbon-free hydro and nuclear with some coal and natural gas, mostly in states other than Washington. The nuclear plant works in concert with the hydro system, reducing power during the spring to accommodate high river flows.
Columbia is the third-largest generator of electricity in Washington, behind the Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph hydroelectric dams, all three zero-carbon sources, and it is the youngest of the three facilities (Grand Coulee came online in 1942, Chief Joe in 1979, and CGS in 1984).
CGS has been generating electricity constantly for thirty-two years, but seems to have really found its groove over the last six, setting annual generation records in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016. The power plant’s electricity output has been steadily increasing over this period because of continuous management and safety improvements, well-timed maintenance, technology replacements and power uprates, done when production is halted to replace fuel.
Day-to-day maintenance also has contributed to the reliable operation of the plant, said spokesman Mike Paoli.
Columbia has also added over 40 MW of production capacity since 2011, bringing the total to 1,207 MW. The plant has operated at 93% capacity since 2012, meaning it’s producing its maximum power almost all the time.
Such a high capacity factor (cf = power produced ÷ max power possible) is common for nuclear. There have only been a handful of generating systems in history with a higher capacity factor than that of Columbia Generating Station, and all are nuclear.
Other energy sources struggle to maintain output for many reasons. The cf for coal is only about 60%, for natural gas 70%, for hydro 45%, for wind 35% and for solar 25%.
But the most important reason for the reliability is that nuclear takes so little fuel and just keeps going and going. Unlike fossil fuel plants that have to be fueled continuously, refueling of nuclear plants only happens every two years because nuclear produces so much power using so little fuel.
The Columbia Generating Station produces about 20 tons of waste each year to generate 9.6 billion kWhs of electricity. Compare this to a coal plant which produces almost 1,000,000 tons of toxic waste to produce the same amount of electricity, not to mention the 2,000,000 tons of CO2 that enters the atmosphere.
Electricity from Columbia Generating Station is distributed to 92 utilities across the Pacific Northwest. Energy Northwest is part of a non-profit public agency, formed as a Washington State joint operating agency in 1957. Today the joint operating agency membership includes nearly every public power utility district in the state of Washington and several municipalities.
Energy Northwest is under the umbrella of the Bonneville Power Administration to which it sells all of its power at-cost. BPA itself is a federal non-profit agency whose territory includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana and small parts of eastern Montana, California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
About one-third of the electric power used in the Northwest comes from BPA, and BPA operates and maintains about three-quarters of the high-voltage transmission in its territory.
Another positive feature of the Columbia Generating Station is it can perform a moderate amount of load following if needed to compensate for the intermittency of the renewables in BPA’s region or to deal with strange weather. The reactor can drop to 85% power in about 15 minutes, more than enough to support its own fleet of wind, solar and hydro, and 65% in 3 hours. But CGS is rarely needed in this capacity because of the diverse energy mix, particularly hydroelectric, controlled by BPA.
“Nuclear gives us some flexibility,” said Sawatzke, “by having the capability to ramp down when there’s too much power on the grid. It then carries the load during the winter and summer when power is in limited supply.”
