Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG)

“The growth in Operating Earnings for the year is a direct result of the improved operation of our nuclear and fossil fleets,” said E. James Ferland, chairman and chief executive officer of PSEG. For the year, PSEG’s five-unit nuclear fleet had a capacity factor of 90%, an 8% improvement over the 2004 capacity factor of 82%. “Exceptional performance in the fourth quarter by the entire team at Salem Unit 1 allowed us to complete a refueling outage and replacement of the reactor vessel head in a world-record 25 days. This was 17 days faster than our initial estimates of a year ago,” Ferland said. Experience gained from the strong performance during an identical outage in the spring on Salem Unit 2 was credited as a major factor in achieving the world-record time for replacing the reactor head.

“Improvements in the overall work management processes at the New Jersey nuclear site during the year were a direct result of the Operating Services Agreement that PSEG entered into with Exelon in late 2004,” Ferland said. “By applying the best practices gained from their large fleet of nuclear plants, Exelon has demonstrated how a focused approach to running nuclear plants can produce significant benefits in a short period of time however; we realize we still have a way to go to achieve the performance levels of the Exelon fleet.”