UPDATE 1-APS shut Ariz. Palo Verde 2 reactor for refuel

(Updates with company comment)

NEW YORK, March 31 (Reuters) - Arizona Public Service shut the 1,314-megawatt Unit 2 at the Palo Verde nuclear power station in Arizona for planned refueling and maintenance on March 29, a spokeswoman for the company said Monday.

She said the company did not plan to conduct any major overhauls during this outage other than the usual refueling and maintenance activities and the unit will likley return in early May.

The unit last shut for refueling from Sept. 30-Nov. 14, 2006. It is on an 18-month refueling cycle.

The 3,875 MW Palo Verde station is located in Wintersburg in Maricopa County about 50 miles west of Phoenix. There are three units at the station: the 1,314 MW Units 1 and 2, and 1,247 MW Unit 3, which entered service in 1986, 1986 and 1988, respectively.

Units 1 and 3 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 400 homes in Arizona.

The company has said the output of Unit 3 would rise to about the same as Units 1 and 2 following a refueling outage completed in January 2008.

APS, a subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corp (PNW.N: Quote, Profile, Research), operates the station for its owners.