History a bit

MW/MWe/MWt

• MWe and MWt are units for measuring the output of a power plant.

• MWe MegaWatts of electrical output• MWt megawatts of thermal output

KWH

Q: How many houses – a 1,600 MWe nuclear plant could power, if the average house used 8,900 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year?

A: The power plant generates power at the rate of 1600 MW or 1600 million watts.Watts are a rate, a joule per second; or a watt-hour per hour.8,900 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year is 8900 kw-hr x 1 day/24 hours x 1 year/365 days = 1.01 kw or ~1000 watts.

So if each house takes 1kW, then 1600 MW will handle 1600000 houses.

Generations