Operational reliability of the Point Lepreau GS standby generators

Performance of the two Point Lepreau GS standby generators during the first three years of licensed station operation is reviewed. It is shown that the mandated reliability/availability requirements have been met. The nature of starting and running failures has been examined and the consequences, in terms of design and procedural changes, discussed. A brief review of standby generator outages is included to permit estimates of standby generator availability and total Class III standby power unavailability. A pair of simple equations is introduced as a means of estimating the probable economic penalty, both cumulative and incremental, associated with the running failure of one standby generator while the other is on a maintenance outage. (authors)