Electricity

Electricity Monthly Update

With Data for July 2013 | Release Date: September 23, 2013 | Next Release Date: October 22, 2013 

Highlights: July 2013

• Total net generation in the United States decreased 5.5 percent in July 2013 compared to the previous year. This 

decrease in electricity generation occurred because last July was the hottest on record.

• New York State (NYISO) recorded a new record daily peak demand in July, reaching 33,956 MW of demand on July 

19, 2013.

• The price of natural gas at Henry Hub on a $/MWh basis decreased below the price of Central Appalachian coal, and 

in doing so, is now $1.00/MWh lower than the price of Central Appalachian coal.

Key Indicators

July 2013 % Change from July 2012

Total Net Generation 

(Thousand MWh) 393,753 -5.5%

Residential Retail Price 

(cents/kWh) 12.61 5.1%

Retail Sales 

(Thousand MWh) 354,450 -4.3%

Cooling Degree-Days 351 -14.0%

Natural Gas Price, Henry Hub 

($/MMBtu) 3.73 22.3%

Natural Gas Consumption

(Mcf) 937,994 -16.5%

Coal Consumption

(Thousand Tons) 83,466 -3.7%

Coal Stocks

(Thousand Tons) 160,403 -12.4%

Nuclear Generation

(Thousand MWh) 70,531 2.0%

Nuclear Outages

(MW) 6,100 -27.2%

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High repair costs and lower power prices drive nuclear retirements 

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Electric Generator 

Report (Form EIA-860)

Note: One additional retirement (slated for 2019) was announced in 2010 for Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station (614 megawatts) in New 

Jersey.

Since October 2012, electric power companies have announced the retirement of five nuclear reactors at four power plants. 

The five reactors have a combined capacity of nearly 4,200 megawatts (MW). The recent retirements are the first since 1998. 

Decisions to retire the units involved concerns over maintenance and repair costs and declining profitability. Units that 

operated as merchant generators, meaning that the costs associated with running and maintaining the plants cannot be 

recovered through regulated cost-of-service rates, have been particularly sensitive to declining profitability. Low wholesale 

electricity prices, driven in part by lower natural gas prices, have been cited more often in the retirement decisions of these 

plants while repair costs have been drivers of retirements at nuclear power plants owned by utilities.

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The recent reactor retirements will decrease the total number of operating nuclear reactors to 99 and will reduce total U.S 

nuclear net summer capacity by almost 4%. Specific information on each retirement is included below.

Vermont Yankee (604 MW)

Entergy Corporation issued the most recent retirement announcement in August 2013 when it stated that it would close 

Vermont Yankee. The station is expected to cease power production and start decommissioning in the fourth quarter of 2014. 

Entergy said that low natural gas prices had pushed the wholesale price of electricity low enough to where Vermont Yankee 

could not be profitable in its current cost structure. The company also cited what it called "wholesale market design flaws" 

that kept capacity prices and power prices artificially low in the region. The plant was also facing modifications to its 

infrastructure due to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requirements addressing safety after the Fukushima nuclear 

incident in 2011.

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), Units 2 and 3 (2,150 MW total)

On June 7, 2013 Southern California Edison (SCE) decided to permanently retire SONGS units 2 and 3 near San Diego. 

New steam generators were installed in Unit 2 in 2009 and in Unit 3 in 2010. In January 2012, a small leak was discovered 

inside a steam generator in Unit 3, and both units were shut down to evaluate the cause of the leakage and to make repairs. 

Both units have remained shutdown since then. SCE had submitted plans to the NRC to restart Unit 2 at reduced power, and 

the NRC was reviewing the restart plans. However, concerns over the length of the review process and the high costs 

associated with steam generator repairs led SCE to retire both reactors. The potential effects of these units' continued outage 

was explored in a recent Today In Energy article.

Kewaunee Power Station (556 MW)

In early May 2013, Dominion Resources retired the Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin because of lower wholesale 

power prices in the region. Kewaunee, a merchant plant no longer associated with a state-regulated utility, was licensed to 

operate through 2033. Many of the power purchase agreements that the plant held with load serving entities in the region 

were expiring, and declining profits led Dominion to retire the plant.

Crystal River Nuclear Generating Plant, 

Unit 3 (860 MW)

On February 5, 2013 Duke Energy announced plans to retire Crystal River Unit 3 in Florida. This was shortly after Duke had 

acquired Progress Energy, which had owned Crystal River. Crystal River Unit 3 was licensed to operate through 2016, and 

an application to extend the operating life of the unit to 2036 was under review by the NRC. Crystal River Unit 3 was shut 

down in September 2009 to refuel and to replace its steam generators. During the shutdown, workers discovered damage to 

the concrete wall of the containment building, and additional damage occurred during subsequent repairs in 2011. Although a 

2012 report indicated that the damage could be repaired and the plant restored to service, the uncertainty surrounding the 

cost and timing of repairs ultimately led Duke Energy to retire Crystal River Unit 3. The coal-fired units at Crystal River will 

continue to operate.

New nuclear capacity

The loss of nuclear capacity from retirements is planned to be offset by the construction of five nuclear reactors with a 

combined capacity of more than 5,600 MW. The completion of construction at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar 2 

in 2015 is expected to add almost 1,200 megawatts of new nuclear capacity. During 2012, the NRC issued combined 

operating licenses for four new nuclear reactors at two plants: Vogtle, units 3 and 4 in Georgia, and Virgil C. Summer, units 2 

and 3 in South Carolina. The four reactors have a total capacity of almost 4,500 megawatts and are now under construction, 

with target dates for completion between 2016 and 2018. There are also plans for capacity uprates at existing reactors. 

These plans include approximately 1,000 MW of uprate capacity currently under review by the NRC. However, Exelon 

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Nuclear, which operates 17 reactors, recently announced that uprates previously approved by NRC, at LaSalle units 1 and 2 

as well as Limerick units 1 and 2, will be delayed.

Principal Contributor: Tyson Brown 

(Michael.Brown@eia.gov) 

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