Power uprates – modification of existing plants and associated licenses to generate additional electricity – enable a utility or plant owner to produce additional electricity without building a new plant.
The uprate project at Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station, a half hour south of Miami on Biscayne Bay, as well as at its sister facility, St. Lucie, up the Atlantic coast represents one of the largest uprate projects performed in the history of U.S. commercial nuclear plants. The uprates yielded 30 percent more power than originally anticipated, allowing customer Florida Power & Light to add more than 522 megawatts of capacity without creating greenhouse gases. That’s enough to power more than 300,000 Florida households annually.
Bechtel performed uprates on a total of four nuclear generating units, two at each plant. These major construction activities were performed while one unit―and sometimes both―were in operation. This regimen required highly detailed and complex planning, and much cooperation with Florida Power & Light, to meet tight schedules, while maintaining safety and quality standards.
Bechtel aligns its capabilities to our customers’ objectives. We have completed seven extended power uprate projects since 2009. In addition to the work on the Florida units, the company also completed extended power uprate work at Florida Power & Light's Point Beach nuclear facility in Wisconsin in 2011.
