"The recent operating cycle was the most successful in V.C. Summer's 25-year history," said Jeff Archie, senior vice president of SCE&G Nuclear Operations. "We set a continuous run record of 475 days, and our commitment to safety allowed us to surpass5.5 million safe work hours. We are indeed proud of this team accomplishment and our strong safety culture."

Approximately one-third of Summer Station's 157 uranium fuel assemblies are replaced every 18 months. Refueling outages also allow SCE&G to perform preventive maintenance work that cannot be performed when the plant is in operation. While the 966-megawatt plant is out of service, SCE&G's other generating plants will provide electric power for its customers.

Although the plant set a new record for a continuous run, it did experience an automatic shutdown Oct. 2 due to a fault on the generator output breaker on the non-nuclear side of the plant. The generator output breaker is a piece of equipment that helps tie the plant to the power grid. Repair and testing of the breaker was completed in 10 days, allowing the plant to start up the evening of Oct. 12.

"Timing has been unique with this unanticipated maintenance outage happening so closely with our scheduled refueling outage," Archie said. "Our team did a great job addressing the breaker repairs, which helped us avoid any impact to the start of our scheduled refueling outage."

PROFILE

South Carolina Electric & Gas Company is a regulated public utility engaged in the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity to approximately 654,000 customers in 26 counties in the central, southern and southwestern portions of South Carolina. The company also provides natural gas service to approximately 307,000 customers in 34 counties in the state.

SCANA Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina, is an energy-based holding company principally engaged, through subsidiaries, in electric and natural gas utility operations and other energy-related businesses.