both aspects can be observed in figure which compares the residual load covered by nuclear after the introduction of wind energy the dark blue area with the original load without renewables areas in light and dark blue the figure also shows that the average load factor for nuclear decreases from in the reference scenario to about after the integration of wind energy this means that nuclear plants tend to be operated more frequently at a partial load and are required to cycle more often the decrease on average electricity prices is expected to be more significant at higher penetration level of renewables as shown in the quantitative study presented in chapter