January 1, 2012

Navigant Announces Coal-Fired Generation Operational Excellence Awards

By Dale Probasco and Bob Ruhlman, Navigant Consulting Inc.

Combined Ranking Index

Each of the previous four measurements listed is then weighted according to overall importance (slight variances exist among the three award categories) as determined by the GKS client-based steering committee. For example, availability/reliability measures are weighted somewhat higher for the large plant category because these units typically have higher margins and are more strategically significant than units in the small plant category. Once weighting factors are assigned, an overall Combined Ranking Index is computed within each plant size category. Plants are then ranked with the two best-performing plants in each category selected as award recipients. For 2012, Navigant and the GKS Steering Committee have agreed to add worker safety to the plant selection criteria.

2011 Operational Excellence Award Recipients

Operational Excellence Award recipients for the 2006–2010 evaluation period were announced in early summer 2011 [year corrected 1/3/11]:

• Small Coal Plant Category. Winner: Dominion Generation’s Mecklenburg plant, located in Clarksville, Va. Runner-up: Progress Energy’s Cape Fear plant, located near Moncure, N.C.
• Medium Coal Plant Category. Winner: Mid-American Energy’s Neal Energy Center, located in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa. Runner-up: TVA’s Gallatin plant, located in Gallatin, Tenn.
• Large Coal Plant Category. Winner: AmerenUE’s Labadie Energy Center, located in Labadie, Mo. (Figure 1). Runner-up: Luminant’s Monticello plant, located in Monticello, Texas.

These six plants averaged 91% EAF, 3.4% EFOR, and a NFOM spending efficiency of 26% less than the NFOM cost model predicted value for the five-year evaluation period.

Key Success Factors

In June 2011, Navigant held its annual Operational Excellence Award meeting for GKS subscribers. At this meeting, plant representatives highlighted the key factors that contributed to their success:

• Keep the plant staff lean and individual productivity high while treating people well to maximize individual contributions and worth.
• Recognize that for most units, major overhauls are the largest source of plant availability loss. Overhauls continue to challenge plant staff with regards to both scope and frequency (that is, increasing intervals).
• Focus capital investment to eliminate large electrical load reductions.
• Incorporate strong preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance programs, with a focus on being data-driven and moving toward condition-based decision-making.
• Be process-driven, with ownership and accountability expected at every level of the organization.
• Make personnel safety a top priority.
• Embrace hands-on engineering rather than sitting behind a desk.
• Implement an “Outage Control Center” process for all outages (planned maintenance and forced outages).
• Implement a short-notice outage work process to take maximum advantage of forced and maintenance outages.
• Recognize that the secret to success is the plant’s workforce and that people are the No. 1 asset.
• Look for opportunities to move selected maintenance to operations when qualified people are present.
• Incorporate an operations and maintenance continuous training program: “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect Performance.”
• Accept nothing less than teamwork.
• Take calculated risks with equipment (but never safety) to maximize spending efficiency.
• Track daily department-level costs.
• Maintain expertise in critical equipment and plant operations and bring long-term focus to the decision-making process, thus improving current operation and maintenance cycles.