Our Correspondent
The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) has announced that its operating and maintenance subsidiary, Nawah Energy Company, has successfully achieved 100% of the rated reactor power capacity for Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant. This brings the Barakah plant closer to starting commercial operations in early 2021.
Unit 1 is now generating 1400MW of electricity from a single generator connected to the UAE grid making it the largest single source of electricity in the UAE.
The Barakah Plant provides clean baseload electricity that is constant, reliable and sustainable for the country. This will help to accelerate the decarbonisation of the UAE power sector, and support the diversification of the nation’s energy portfolio.
The plant will generate up to 25 per cent of the country’s electricity from clean energy sources and prevent the release of up to 21 million tons of carbon emissions annually –equal to removing 3.2 million cars off the roads each year.
Nawah operates Unit 1 and has been responsible for safely and steadily raising the power levels since it commenced the start-up process in July, and connection to the grid in August.
Achieving 100 per cent power is one of the final steps of the Power Ascension Testing (PAT) phase of the start-up process for Unit 1. Nawah’s highly skilled and certified nuclear operators will carry out a series of tests before the reactor is safely shut down in preparation for the Check Outage. During this period, the Unit 1 systems will be carefully examined, and any planned or corrective maintenance will be performed to maintain its safety, reliability and efficiency prior to the commencement of commercial operations.
Located in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi, the plant is one of the largest nuclear energy new build projects in the world, with four APR-1400 units. Construction of the plant began in 2012 and is now more than 95 per cent complete. Construction of Units 3 and 4 are in the final stages.
