Transformers ordered for AP1000s

02 September 2011

Westinghouse has awarded a multi-million dollar order for transformers for two planned US nuclear power plants with the US division of Portugal's Efacec.
 

Efacec transformers (Efacec USA)
Efacec: manufacturing transformers for over 50 years (Image: Efacec USA)

 

The twenty unit transformers for the planned new units at VC Summer in South Carolina and Vogtle in Georgia are to be designed, built and tested at Efacec USA's Georgia plant. Efacec's Georgia facility has only been in operation since late 2009, but parent company Efacec lays claim to be Portugal's largest group in the electricity field and has been manufacturing transformers since 1957.
 
Efacec USA director of sales and marketing Mike Bauer expressed the company's delight at the show of confidence in both its technology and manufacturing capabilities. "Our global technology combined with our local manufacturing and testing facilities enabled us to offer a competitive, best-in-class solution," he said.
 
Applications for reactor construction and operating licences (COLs) have been lodged with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for two AP1000s each at VC Summer and Vogtle by Southern Nuclear Operating Company and South Carolina Electric & Gas, respectively. The NRC is expected to complete its reviews of the Vogtle COL at the end of 2011 and the VC Summer COL early in 2012. The plants would become the first new nuclear units to be constructed in the USA in over 25 years.
 
Site works are already well advanced at both sites in preparation for the 1200 MWe units and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts were signed with Westinghouse and the Shaw Group consortium for all of the units during 2008.
 
Researched and written

by World Nuclear News