Alliant Energy sweeps EUCG Best Performer awards

Dr. Robert Peltier, PE

Pages: 1 2 3 4

The EUCG (formerly Electric Utility Cost Group) annual Best Performer awards were presented at the group’s fall 2007 meeting in Denver, where Alliant Energy swept the top awards. The three-unit, 328-MW Lansing Generating Station (Figure 1) was named Best Performer Small Coal (<250 MW average unit size), and the three-unit, 803-MW Edgewater Generating Station (Figure 2) was selected as Best Performer Large Coal (>250 MW average unit size). Alliant Energy’s M.L. Kapp Generating Station took second place in the Small Coal division. Approximately 80 coal-fired generating stations from across the U.S. were benchmarked for the EUCG’s annual awards program.

1. Best of the small. Alliant Energy’s Lansing Generating Station won the EUCG’s Best Performer award in the small coal category at the group’s fall meeting. Courtesy: Alliant Energy

2. Best of the large. Alliant Energy’s Edgewater Generating Station was named the EUCG’s Best Performer in the large coal category. Courtesy: Alliant Energy

To be fair, Lower Colorado River Authority’s Fayette Power Plant finished in a tie with Edgewater, but because Fayette’s NOx reduction program was profiled in the May/June 2007 issue of our sister publication, COAL POWER (www.coalpowermag.com), we’re focusing on Alliant Energy’s corporate- and plant-level approach to managing its aging coal plant assets to achieve such outstanding results.

POWER has been privileged to publish findings from a number of EUCG-conducted benchmarking studies over the past several years; the latest findings are from the group’s most recent plant maintenance staffing study. But this is the first time POWER has taken the opportunity to examine the EUCG’s Best Performer selection criteria (see sidebar) and then discuss with each winning plant’s staff the key indicators they believe differentiate them from their peers.

How the EUCG selects best performers

The EUCG awards program looks at two periods of performance excellence: a calendar year for the fall awards and a five-year average for the spring awards.

The awards program is entirely data-driven—the plant with the best reliability and lowest O&M costs combined is the winner. However, the details of the calculations reveal the Fossil Productivity Committee’s interest in using very specific metrics when making the calculation.

Reliability analysis. The reliability calculation is based on an equivalent unplanned outage factor (EUOF) that is calculated by the following formula:

EUOF = (FOH + EFDH + MOH + EMOH) / PH

Where, FOH = forced outage hours, EFDH = equivalent forced derate hours, MOH = maintenance outage hours, EMOH = equivalent maintenance derate hours, PH = period hours

Cost analysis. The cost analysis portion of the evaluation process is unique: it uses a ratio of actual O&M costs compared with those predicted by a regression analysis of the actual O&M costs experienced by the group. This approach has the effect of minimizing the variances in cost due to capacity factor, net plant generation, and the number of units at a plant, so all plants are placed on an equal footing.

Putting it all together. The analysis is a two-step process. The first regression is used to predict the O&M cost based on a plant capacity factor. An equation of the regression fit to the data is found. Step two is to predict the O&M cost as a function of the EUOF. A plant’s actual O&M costs are then compared with the predicted O&M costs for its EUOF to arrive at a second ranking.

The rankings of each plant are then summed to develop a final placement for the awards standing, and the plant with the lowest score wins. Combining scores from the two evaluation techniques allows a plant to win by being best of class in one ranking while scoring well in the second category. Conversely, a plant that scores at the top in one ranking but that lags in the second will be an “also ran” in the final standings.

The final rankings for fall 2007 identified Lansing Generating Station as the Best Performer in the Small Coal category, resulting from its second place in O&M and fourth place in EUOF. Lower Colorado River Authority’s Fayette Power Plant (#4 in O&M and #3 in EUOF) tied with Alliant Energy’s Edgewater Generating Station (#2 O&M and #5 EUOF) in the Large Coal category.

Pages: 1 2 3 4