October 15, 2008

Entergy’s “big catch”

Dr. Robert Peltier, PE

Super staff

Staffing the center around the clock requires a total of nine PM&D specialists: two per shift—one with an operations background and the other a technical specialist with an instrumentation and control (I&C) or PdM background—for four shifts plus one relief person to cover absences. The background of the specialists is necessarily broad, and they represent all areas of Entergy’s service territory and all fuel and unit types.

Staff experience levels are also impressive. The typical operations specialist has 20 to 30 years of operating experience on multiple units. Three-quarters of the technical specialists have an I&C or electrical background plus 20 to 30 years’ experience and cross-training in operations. The staff vibration guru has more than 30 years’ experience. An IT specialist rounds out the technical staff.

Barnes noted that in the early days, the PM&DC was careful to avoid being perceived as “Big Brother” looking over the shoulder of plant operators—just waiting for someone to make a mistake. Instead, PM&DC operators took great pains to show that they are another set of calibrated eyeballs available to the plant staff to watch start-up and help identify problems early.

To put a face with a telephone voice, PM&DC specialists visit several plants once or twice a year to share operating information, available services, and to build a close working relationship with the plant operations department. Plant and field office staff are also welcome and are encouraged to spend a few days working with specialists in the PM&DC. Specialists work closely with subject matter experts in the Plant Support and Tech Support departments to solve more specialized problems.

Plant operators soon learned that the PM&DC staff was, according to Barnes, “not looking over their shoulder, but rather, watching their back.” Today, the PM&DC specialists all lend assistance to the shift supervisor and control room operator during every unit start-up and during most shutdowns. There is an audible alarm in the PM&DC with every unit circuit breaker trip.

Barnes noted that the PM&DC has an equal emphasis on operations and equipment monitoring. The typical shift for a specialist in the Entergy PM&DC is spent monitoring operations at several assigned plants using the OIS/PI as the primary means of accessing plant data for routine monitoring. As mentioned earlier, the specialist will also carefully monitor unit start-ups and shutdowns, which are complex, especially for supercritical plants. The expertise of the operations specialists focused on monitoring key functions and data can be especially helpful during the controlled chaos in a plant control room during start-up or shutdown. When all doesn’t go as planned, the data collection and diagnostic capability of the PM&DC is critical to assessing corrective actions that affect plant operations.

PM&DC specialists also continuously look for early signs of emerging equipment problems with failed instrumentation, respond to requests by plant operators to help identify areas where lost generation can be recovered, and assess other equipment and performance issues.

If an anomaly is identified by the software tools and is confirmed based on the specialist’s experience and expertise, then the first step is to compare the data with expected values calculated by the OIS, when those are available. The specialist investigates by reviewing historical trends and by making comparisons with similar units or equipment to determine if they’re dealing with bad instrumentation, process change, or an equipment problem. If the specialist determines that there is a bad data point or an equipment problem, the next step is to query their automated integrated maintenance management system, or AIMM, to determine if the plant is already aware of the problem or not. If it isn’t, then the plant is contacted and alerted. If the problem is minor and doesn’t affect equipment or operator safety, the alert is made by e-mail to the shift operators and other key staff. If the alert is critical (meaning a unit trip or equipment damage is imminent or staff safety is endangered), then the specialist will call the control room to report the situation.