Figure represents highest production volume in facility’s history
The Olkiluoto nuclear power station in Finland, boosted by commercial operation of a third reactor, produced 24.67 TWh of electricity in 2023, or 31% of the electricity consumed in the country, station owner and operator Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) said.
TVO said this is the highest production volume in the history of Olkiluoto and due largely to the fact that a third unit, a 1,600 EPR, began commercial operation in May.
Since it began regular electricity production in April, Olkiluoto-3 has been offline for less than four days, TVO said. The downtime was largely the result of two turbine trips in November, one of which resulted from a fault in the protection system’s measuring instrument, and the other from a turbine trip lock occurring during a nearby fault test.
The Olkiluoto-3 plant had already produced 1.9 TWh of electricity while undergoing test production in 2022, TVO said.
Despite 2023 not being a full production year, Olkiluoto-3 produced 10.37 TWh of electricity, representing 42% of the total production volume from Olkiluoto.
TVO said 2023 was “a solid year” for the two older Olkiluoto units, both 890-MW boiling water reactor units that began commercial operation in 1979 and 1982.
Olkiluoto-1 produced 7.42 TWh of electricity and Olkiluoto-2 6.87 TWh.
Olkiluoto-1 produced slightly more electricity than in previous years, but at Olkiluoto-2 production was reduced by a leak detected in the cooling system of the water-cooled generator in August 2023. This resulted in the plant being taken offline for 17 days for replacement of the rotor of the generator.
In 2022 the two units that were operating at Olkiluoto produced 16.4 TWh – up from 14.4 TWh in 2021.
All three Olkiluoto units are in operation with a combined power output of about 3,380 MW, said Marjo Mustonen, senior vice-president of electricity production at TVO.
TVO said it has spent “tens of millions of euros” on the modernisation of Olkiluoto-1 and Olkiluoto-2. In 2023, about €60m ($65m) was invested in maintenance and modification.
TVO is considering extending the operating licences and increasing the capacity for Olkiluoto-1 and Olkiluoto-2. TVO said a final decision on licence extensions and uprates would be made once an environmental impact assessment is complete. Both units are licensed until 2038.
