February 15, 2008

TVA’s Shawnee Fossil Plant Unit 6 sets new record for continuous operation

Dr. Robert Peltier, PE

Enterprise is where you find it
 

The March 1, 1954, issue of TIME magazine reported on a University of Chicago lecture presented by TVA Chairman Gordon R. Clapp the previous week in an article titled “The Wrong Horse.” When queried about the cost difference between public works projects constructed by private enterprise and the government, Clapp pointed to the “race” between TVA and Electric Energy Inc. to supply power for Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) installations in Paducah, Ky.

Electric Energy Inc., a partnership of five privately owned utility firms, contracted with the AEC in 1950 to build a power plant at Joppa, Ill., just across the Ohio River from Shawnee (now the 1,086-MW merchant plant Joppa Power Station, 80% owned by Ameren and 20% by Kentucky Utilities). TVA was also contracted to build a plant of similar size the same year, and the race was on.

Joppa was scheduled to begin service three months ahead of Shawnee, and handicappers made Joppa the overwhelming favorite to capture the long-term contract to supply baseload power to the AEC.

Clapp noted in his lecture that “Both TVA and E.E., Inc. suffered from delayed deliveries from equipment manufacturers. Both encountered labor difficulties. Both projects missed the completion dates originally scheduled. Trade journals and some of the daily press heralded this ‘race.’ . . . After a while, however, the cries of the professional spectators died down. It began to be apparent that the wrong horse was coming in ahead. Two years and three months from the time construction was started, the first unit at TVA’s Shawnee plant was placed in commercial operation, while the smokestacks of Joppa . . . were still clean and cold.”

TIME noted that Clapp ended his lecture with a comparison of the costs to construct each facility. “Electric Energy, Inc. had to raise its estimates from $126/kW to $184/kW, while TVA kept well within the original estimate of $147.50/kW. Clapp added, ‘If this story has a moral, perhaps this is it: enterprise is where you find it.’ ”

 

The three Ps

Parsley attributes Shawnee’s success to the three Ps—people, processes, and passion—and the plant works hard on all three.

Parsley has spent his entire 28-year career with TVA at Shawnee, working his way up from the operator ranks to running Shawnee for the past five years, so his management style is informed by real-world experience and long-term working relationships with many at the plant. He confessed that his long experience with Shawnee has been a key influence on his management style: “With experience comes credibility, with credibility comes trust, and with trust comes success.”

Hiring, training, and keeping good people are perhaps Parsley’s greatest challenges as plant manager. Shawnee, like many power stations in the U.S., has been working through the aging workforce “brain drain” problem for the past several years. The lead time for new operators to become productive is about two years, beginning with a year-long operator training program followed by another year of on-the-job training and continuous mentoring and feedback before operators complete their qualifications.

The key to a smooth workforce transition is making a commitment to training a new workforce regardless of actual losses. TVA has elected to err on the side of having a few too many operators rather than too few when long-time employees retire unexpectedly and leave the plant shorthanded for several years. Shawnee begins its classes approximately once a year and staffs them based on projected retirements and other losses three years down the road rather than on actual losses that have occurred. Today, 50% of Shawnee’s workforce has less than 10 years’ experience.

On the ops side, entry-level requirements are typically a two-year degree from a community college or vocational or technical school or five years of equivalent experience. History has shown that employees recruited within a 60-mile radius tend to stay longer and are quicker to make the transition into the Shawnee lifestyle and culture.

Shawnee has been able to keep an experienced workforce on the maintenance side. It brings on board journeymen craft workers as well as trainees and has been able to maintain a first-rate mix of talent.

Attracting the best operations and maintenance supervision talent into the management ranks also remains a crucial challenge for plant management. First-line supervisors usually are promoted from within the operations or maintenance ranks. However, a top-notch first-line supervisor may pause before taking the jump into plant management; developing and encouraging that raw talent is the never-ending responsibility of the plant management team.

Parsley was clear that one of the secrets to the plant’s recent success has been a management team that has served Shawnee a long time; in fact, there are a fair number of second- and third-generation TVA employees at the plant, testifying to the attractiveness of Shawnee’s working environment.