Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Hugh Wynne - Sanford Bernstein.
Hugh Wynne - Sanford Bernstein
We just wanted to ask some operational questions regarding Midwest Generation. The marked improvement in availability in Homer City, which had a big impact on earnings, how best to think about that in future? Have we reached a higher level of availability due to these higher parts inventories and preventive maintenance? Or is availability more likely at Homer City to fluctuate up and down as problems recur with the boiler tubes?
W. James Scilacci Jr.
Hugh, this is Jim Scilacci. I’ll give you some additional comments, and then I’ll throw it over to Ron Litzinger for additional details. I would tell you that in 2008, the level of availability was down substantially. I think it was well below what we would expect from that plant going forward, and because we focused very keenly over the last couple of years on reducing boiler tube leaks, and that was the major part of the difference that we’ve seen now, that the tube leaks are down and the focus on the critical spare parts is also helping. So I’ll stop there and throw it over to Ron if you want to add some further details.
Ronald L. Litzinger
The boiler tube leaks were focused primarily on doing better inspections during our planned outages and doing preventive type replacements in advance. That’s what we think is causing the uptick. There are some components within the boilers that still require replacement that we’re scheduling in future years. We do try and maintain our forced outage rates within a range. We’ve gone from the low end of the range to the upper end of the range and our intent with our current improvement effort is to try and keep it in the upper end of the range.
Hugh Wynne - Sanford Bernstein
I also wanted to ask about the load factor at Midwest Generation. It seems like you had a modest improvement going from the winter to the spring months, which one might not have expected given that you’ve moved into a shoulder period of the year. Is that reflective of any discernible market trend, improvement in demand or is it more just of a coincidence?
W. James Scilacci Jr.
I’ll let Ron handle that.
Ronald L. Litzinger
Yes. In the second quarter we saw nuclear being the market clearing price during the off peak hours, go down initially in the first part of the second quarter. It did come back towards the end of the quarter but that was the primary driver.
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