Heysham Power Stations: Power Failures
(asked on 5th July 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many (a) outages and (b) other periods of unavailability of electricity generation there have been per reactor, in days, at Heysham power station in each year since 2010.
Answered by
Andrew Bowie
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
.
Nuclear power continues to be an important and proven source of reliable, clean energy, and as a result of this strong baseload provision, we have been able to move faster on a number of our key net zero objectives.
A proportion of the nuclear generating capacity is likely to be unavailable at any given point due to routine inspections, maintenance, energy systems management and technical issues. A certain level of outage is to be expected and demonstrative of a very well regulated and safe technology.
In 2021, nuclear power stations generated 46 TWh of electricity which was 15% of the electricity generated in the UK. The UK’s Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor Fleet is ageing and has performed beyond original expectations providing extra years of generation.
In addition to the AGR fleet, Sizewell B will continue operating until at least 2035 and we have set out our ambition for a new generation of nuclear power stations, providing up to 24GW of electricity by 2050. The new reactor designs are very efficient. This includes new large-scale nuclear power stations like Hinkley Point C which alone will provide 3.2GW for around 60 years, and the next generation of small and advanced reactors are expected to be more efficient.
2010 – 2023 (June): Annual number of outages and non-operational days at UK nuclear power stations
| Dungeness B R21 | Dungeness B R22 | Hartlepool R1 | Hartlepool R2 | Heysham 1 R1 | Heysham 1 R2 | Heysham 2 R7 | Heysham 2 R8 | ||||||||
| Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational |
2010 | 0 | 230 | 4 | 101 | 3 | 49 | 3 | 86 | 2 | 152 | 3 | 119 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 251 |
2011 | 4 | 260 | 3 | 249 | 6 | 129 | 2 | 50 | 2 | 22 | 4 | 24 | 2 | 82 | 3 | 32 |
2012 | 5 | 172 | 2 | 181 | 3 | 47 | 2 | 37 | 4 | 71 | 5 | 133 | 4 | 63 | 0 | 0 |
2013 | 5 | 102 | 8 | 182 | 4 | 48 | 4 | 133 | 2 | 141 | 7 | 50 | 1 | 28 | 2 | 74 |
2014 | 9 | 179 | 6 | 106 | 3 | 122 | 4 | 144 | 3 | 246 | 3 | 138 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2015 | 4 | 44 | 3 | 129 | 2 | 79 | 4 | 79 | 3 | 77 | 2 | 136 | 2 | 70 | 0 | 0 |
2016 | 4 | 41 | 7 | 57 | 5 | 132 | 3 | 79 | 2 | 46 | 3 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 65 |
2017 | 6 | 153 | 5 | 92 | 2 | 26 | 4 | 29 | 2 | 98 | 3 | 75 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
2018 | 4 | 127 | 3 | 140 | 2 | 109 | 3 | 29 | 3 | 31 | 1 | 71 | 3 | 89 | 1 | 4 |
2019 | 0 | 365 | 0 | 365 | 6 | 41 | 3 | 117 | 2 | 39 | 5 | 86 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
2020 | 0 | 366 | 0 | 366 | 2 | 29 | 3 | 62 | 3 | 130 | 3 | 71 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 82 |
2021 | 0 | 365 | 0 | 365 | 2 | 114 | 3 | 135 | 4 | 129 | 6 | 95 | 3 | 193 | 5 | 65 |
2022 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 2 | 82 | 2 | 53 | 2 | 57 | 2 | 122 | 5 | 109 | 3 | 63 |
2023 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 2 | 20 | 2 | 20 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 24 | 2 | 22 | 2 | 96 |
| Hinkley Point B R3 | Hinkley Point B R4 | Hunterston B R3 | Hunterston B R4 | Torness R1 | Torness R2 | Sizewell B R1 | |||||||
| Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational | Outages | Days non operational |
2010 | 2 | 54 | 4 | 44 | 2 | 14 | 2 | 15 | 1 | 36 | 5 | 143 | 1 | 196 |
2011 | 2 | 36 | 3 | 90 | 3 | 42 | 4 | 19 | 2 | 64 | 4 | 13 | 2 | 53 |
2012 | 4 | 86 | 3 | 20 | 1 | 60 | 2 | 88 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 83 |
2013 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 17 | 1 | 48 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 47 |
2014 | 1 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 25 | 3 | 18 | 3 | 109 | 3 | 79 | 1 | 46 |
2015 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 85 | 3 | 69 | 2 | 86 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2016 | 4 | 77 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 27 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 62 |
2017 | 3 | 28 | 3 | 51 | 2 | 27 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 65 | 1 | 63 | 1 | 58 |
2018 | 2 | 18 | 1 | 64 | 3 | 301 | 5 | 86 | 1 | 90 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 30 |
2019 | 2 | 96 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 365 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 257 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 65 |
2020 | 2 | 248 | 1 | 314 | 0 | 243 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 271 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
2021 | 2 | 147 | 1 | 130 | 2 | 64 | 4 | 72 | 2 | 71 | 4 | 142 | 1 | 127 |
2022 | 3 | 19 | 1 | 11 | N/A | N/A | 0 | 0 | 4 | 81 | 3 | 115 | 1 | 4 |
2023 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 2 | 40 | 3 | 32 | 1 | 91 |
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Notes on Table
- Days non-operational represents days where a reactor did not generate at all during a day.
- If output in a day is greater than 0, then the day is counted as an operational day.
- Outages represent the number of occurrences where a reactor was non-operational.
- 2023 is until June 2023 only.
- Dungeness moved into its defueling phase in June 2021, having been in an extended outage since September 2018
- N/A means not available due to no longer generating and transitioning to defueling as planned.