Bruce Power profit more than doubles

- Bruce Power LP, which operates the Bruce nuclear facility, more than doubled its profit in 2003, according to one of its major partners.

The news came as Bruce Power began to power up two previously idle reactors recently. At the same time, a reactor at Ontario Power Generation Inc.'s Pickering B generating station broke down, joining another Pickering B reactor that is on a planned maintenance outage.

At one point, two Bruce reactors and two Pickering reactors were out — a total of about 2,600 megawatts of generating capacity that would normally be available on a cold winter day.

Bruce Power's results were reported by Cameco Inc., which is a major partner in Bruce Power along with Trans-Canada Corp. and the OMERS pension fund. Bruce Power leases the Bruce nuclear facility from OPG.

Cameco reported Bruce Power's pretax profit jumped to $286 million, compared with $106 million in 2002. Revenue rose 31 per cent to $1.208 billion in 2003 from $919 million a year earlier. Bruce said the average price it received for its power was 4.5 cents a kilowatt hour, with about 70 per cent of its output delivered at set prices under long-term contracts.

Bruce Power's electricity output increased 17.8 per cent in 2003. That was partly due to better performance — its generators ran at an average 85 per cent capacity, compared with 75 per cent the year before.

The company said it had restarted its Bruce 3 reactor, which was shut down in 1998. The reactor had restarted briefly in early January, but had to be shut down Jan. 12 because of an electrical problem. Bruce officials then discovered a bearing in a turbine had to be replaced, and what had been expected to be a brief shutdown extended for two weeks to complete the work.

Both Bruce Power and OPG, which is returning the laid-up Pickering A nuclear station to service, have hit unexpected difficulties and delays in bringing the plants out of mothballs.

The Bruce 8 reactor, which had been on a longer than expected maintenance shutdown, was also due to return to service. The Bruce 8 and 3 units combined produce about 1,300 megawatts of power.

Meanwhile, OPG had to shut down one unit of its Pickering B station recently due to a mechanical problem. The company wouldn't elaborate, but said the shutdown was not expected to be lengthy. Another Pickering B unit is also shut down for scheduled maintenance.