Energy Information Administration · · Revised 112 series
US nuclear outages reach 20,248 megawatts on Nov 4 as Vogtle Unit 2 goes offline
US nuclear capacity that was offline rose to 20,248 megawatts (MW) on Nov 4, about 20% of the fleet. It was 18,399 MW on Nov 2, and Vogtle Unit 2 went offline in between. Gas-fired plants must cover more of the load.
A data update from FactIQ, written from Energy Information Administration figures. What is FactIQ?
Key figures
- US nuclear capacity offline, Nov 4
- 20,248 MWup from 18,399 MW on Nov 2 and 17,410 MW on Oct 292026-09-182026-11-04U.S. Daily Nuclear Capacity Outage
- Vogtle Unit 2 capacity offline since Nov 3
- 1,152 MWno outage before Nov 32026-09-182026-11-04Daily Nuclear Generating Capacity Outage for Generator 2 at Vogtle
- Palisades capacity offline, through Nov 4
- 815.6 MWequal to its full capacity, so the plant is entirely offline2026-09-182026-11-04Daily Nuclear Generating Capacity Outage at Palisades
- Lower 48 states peak hourly electricity demand, last hour of Nov 3 (UTC)
- 503,800 MWhclose to Nov 2's peak of about 500,4002026-11-022026-11-04Hourly Electricity Demand for the Lower 48 United States (UTC Time)
Vogtle Unit 2 is the largest new outage
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes a daily figure for nuclear capacity outage. It measures how much of the country's nuclear generating capacity is offline, in megawatts (MW). The figure matters because lost nuclear output has to be replaced by other power plants.
- Nuclear capacity offline reached 20,248 MW on Nov 4.
- It was 18,399 MW on Nov 2 and 17,410 MW on Oct 29.
- Total fleet capacity did not change, at 100,057 MW.
- Vogtle Unit 2 has had 1,152 MW offline since Nov 3. It had no outage before that.
Several large reactors stayed offline for the whole period
These plants had capacity offline throughout the period:
- Palo Verde: 1,333 MW.
- Comanche Peak: 1,235 MW.
- Palisades: fully offline. Its outage equals its full capacity of 815.6 MW, and it still did on Nov 4.
With autumn refuelling outages this large, gas-fired plants carry more of the load.
Electricity demand in the Lower 48 states looks normal
The Lower 48 are the contiguous US states. Hourly electricity demand there is measured in megawatthours (MWh). It peaked at about 503,800 MWh in the last hour of Nov 3, in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Nov 2's peak was about 500,400. Gas-fired generation in the Lower 48 peaked near 195,100 MWh per hour on Nov 3.
Two other plants came back from partial outages
Byron and Susquehanna both returned from small partial outages during the period.
Source: Energy Information Administration. See all EIA data in FactIQ.