Electric Utility Industry Gathers at EUCG Fall Workshop to Discuss
Benchmarking, Safety, Systems Reliability and Future Trends
RESTON, Va., Nov. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Risk
management, safety, support cost analysis and systems reliability
were just a few of the issues examined by electric utility industry
leaders during the EUCG Fall Conference & Workshop in
Denver.
EUCG, a global association of energy and electric utility
professionals, meets semiannually to discuss current and emerging
industry issues, share best practices and exchange data for
benchmarking purposes. The association is in its 39th
year of service to the power generation industry.
"Safety and systems reliability are two major focuses of the
electric utility industry today," remarked EUCG President
George W. Sharp from AEP (NYSE:
AEP). "Our members gathered for this workshop to become better
prepared to face the challenges of the future and to make better
and more informed decisions in their roles in their
organizations."
"There were a lot of synergies across multiple presentations
from different providers in this workshop that led to a common
discussion thread on cost and process definitions in the industry.
The format was very informative and encouraged open dialogue across
member companies to share and analyze best practices that have been
implemented or are being planned," said David Ward, Jr., chairman of EUCG's Nuclear
Committee from Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK).
The workshop's opening remarks were provided by David Harkness, vice president and chief
information officer, Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL), responsible for all
information technology development, operations and governance,
cyber security functions, and the company's business continuity
programs. Harkness described Xcel Energy's business systems and its
enterprise technology priorities including modernizing the
infrastructure foundation, deploying expanded mobile functions,
providing enterprise systems, data integration, and self-service
capabilities. Harkness noted that Xcel Energy's business systems
principles included thinking more strategically, maximizing
outsource value, and increasing throughput. Harkness also discussed
the key inputs to an enterprise IT plan, the information technology
operating model, and the critical success factors for IT.
Joining Harkness in the keynote welcome address was Mike Moon, senior director of reliability risk
management for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation
(NERC). Moon described NERC's statutory program areas and its
regulatory models for the electric utility industry. Moon focused
his discussion on preventing failures before they happen and
"regulating" the avoidance of failures, and on NERC's risk-based
compliance monitoring and enforcement program.
EUCG Committees held Forums to discuss current events and what
the future will bring to the utility technologies. During all of
the Forums, members were encouraged to continue to pursue EUCG's
mission to support discussion and dialogue among everyone and to
continue to raise the overall performance of electric
utilities.
- Nuclear Committee: The Nuclear Committee, led by Ward of
Duke Energy, focused on many areas, including task team reports,
inventory management, cyber security and emergency planning, and an
"open forum" addressing nuclear issues. Recurring themes included
support cost analysis and knowledge transfer processes. One of the
highlights of the Forum was a panel discussion of central versus
site staffing organization models featuring Mike Purcell of the Tennessee Valley Authority,
Glenn Inouye of Ontario Power
Generation, and Mike Kramer of
Exelon (NYSE: EXC). The panel provided perspectives on fleet
operations for central and site relationships including governance,
coordination, autonomy and efficiency.
- Fossil Committee: Plant safety, discovering new
ways to operate at low-load, better cycling, and coal to gas
conversion were the main issues of the Fossil Forum led by Fossil
Chairman Ed Taylor, Ohio Valley
Electric Company. The group had a panel discussion led by
Alex Doddoli and Jason Gunawardena of the Salt River Project and
Steve Royall of Pacific Gas &
Electric (NYSE: PCG). In addition, a panel discussion on Lay-Up and
Decommissioning Procedures for Coal Plants was moderated by
Ed Healy of Southern Company. Ameren
Missouri received the best performer award for the top performing
steam plants for 2011.
- Information Technology (IT) Committee:The IT
Forum, chaired by Kathleen
Heffelfinger of PPL Corp (NYSE: PPL), sponsored two sessions
that were shared with the Transmission and Distribution (T&D)
committee including an update on Xcel Energy's grid modernization
strategy, which highlighted successes to date, lessons learned and
next steps related to their SmartGridCity project in Boulder, Colo.
- Hydroelectric Committee: Hydroelectric Committee
Chairman Jim Miller, Tennessee
Valley Authority, presented the opening remarks and introductions
for the Forum. One of the main topics was safety and included the
safety survey results. According to Miller, "The results of this
year's analysis indicate plant and safety performance at many of
the member company hydroelectric plants continue to improve."
Patrice Blais and Daniel Lanciautt
of Hydro Quebec led a discussion on the capital improvement survey
findings. Chris Utracki of Ontario
Power Group and John Schuknect of Pacific Gas & Electric
presented the results of the Leading Performer Analysis of 293
hydroelectric plants. Fifteen companies submitted this year.
- Transmission and Distribution (T&D) Committee:
Chaired by Jesse Medlock, Oncor
Electric, the T&D Committee had a successful meeting focusing
on sharing best practices in the T&D area and data emphasis
tailored to employee safety and systems reliability. In addition to
the "SmartGridCity" presentation, T&D also joined with the IT
committee for an informative and interactive presentation by
Martin Marquardt's team from Tosan,
Inc., on "Generations in the Workplace." Additional highlights
included a session on drive cameras by Joe
Martucci of Public Service Electric and Gas Co. which
focused on safety and the drive cameras installed in its company
vehicles.
During the Membership Meeting, the 2012-2014 EUCG Officers and
Directors were announced and are as follows:
- President: George Sharp,
AEP
- Vice President: Kathy Shirley,
Tennessee Valley Authority
- Treasurer: Evelyn Grant, Lower
Colorado River Authority
- Emerging Issues Director: Bill
Bunker, Pacific Gas & Electric
- Marketing Director: Stephen
Thornton, Duke Energy
- Nuclear Committee Chair: David Ward,
Jr., Duke Energy
- Hydroelectric Committee Chair: Jim
Miller, Tennessee Valley Authority
- Information Technology Committee Chair: Kathleen Heffelfinger, PPL Services
- Transmission & Distribution Committee Chair: Jesse Medlock, Oncor Electric Delivery
- Fossil Committee Chair: Ed
Taylor, Ohio Valley Electric Corp.
The conference was held Sept.
23-26 at the Denver Marriott City Center and attracted more
than 100 electric utility professionals from various utility
technologies from all over the world. "We were all very pleased
with the educational and networking opportunities with this
workshop and conference. Our workshop theme was 'Reaching New
Heights,' and our attendees are certainly poised to reach new
heights with the information and knowledge gained at the meeting. I
am extremely grateful for the commitment from all of our members
and participants," Sharp said.
The next EUCG Conference will be held in Nashville, Tenn., April
14-17, 2013, at the Hilton Nashville Downtown. For more
information, please visit the EUCG website, www.eucg.org.
About EUCG: EUCG is a global non-profit association of
energy and electric utility professionals who discuss current and
emerging industry issues, share best practices and exchange data
for benchmarking purposes. The 38-year-old association is organized
into committees that represent specific utility functions: Fossil,
Nuclear, Hydroelectric, Transmission & Distribution, and
Information Technology. Members attend semiannual workshops that
focus on strategic planning, maintenance practices, operations
management, outage management and various other aspects of the
electric utility business. Membership is open to all utility
companies and professionals worldwide. Interested parties should
contact Don Kaiser, EUCG Executive
Director, at 703/234-4116 or Kaiser@eucg.org.
SOURCE EUCG