Exelon Pa. Limerick 1 reactor increases output

PHOENIX, March 21 (Reuters) - The 1,134-megawatt Unit 1 at Exelon Corp's (EXC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Limerick nuclear power station in Pennsylvania continued to exit a refueling outage and by Friday morning had ramped up to 20 percent of its capacity, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

The unit shut by Feb. 29.

When the unit shut, the company said plant staff, along with more than 1,800 additional workers, would replace nearly a third of the reactor fuel and conduct other maintenance.

The unit last shut for refueling March 6-27, 2006. The unit is on a 24-month refueling cycle.

The 2,268-MW Limerick station is located in Pottstown, in Montgomery County, about 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The station has two 1,134-MW units, numbered 1 and 2, which entered service in 1986 and 1990.

Unit 2 continued to operate at full power.

One megawatt powers about 800 homes in Pennsylvania.

Exelon, of Chicago, owns and operates more than 38,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to about 5.4 million customers in northern Illinois and southeast Pennsylvania and natural gas to about 480,000 in the Philadelphia area. (Reporting by Bernie Woodall)