POWER March 2012 - 46

OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
Achieving Sustainable
Performance Improvement
Well-organized operations and maintenance (O&M) and outage efforts enable
power plants to reduce overall operating costs, improve equipment reliability,
and increase long-term productivity. Experienced contractors can help
plant staff maximize the success of their outages and O&M endeavors.
By Angela Neville, JD
" I
f you fail to plan, you are planning to
fail " goes a popular adage attributed
to Benjamin Franklin. The absence
of proper planning can detrimentally affect
the success of outages and regular operations
and maintenance (O&M) conducted at power
plants. Contractors, such as Fluor, that specialize
in such tasks can help ensure effective
planning and execution.
" We try to help our clients define the
scope of their outages by getting involved at
the conceptual stage, " Rick Graves, senior
vice president at the Fluor Power Group, told
POWER in January. Fluor is a leading provider
of outage planning and O&M services
to U.S. power generation facilities and has
experience providing these services in the
areas of nuclear, gas, coal-fired, and hydroelectric
power generation.
Early Involvement Is Key
When Fluor's representatives interface
with power plant managers, they can offer
to provide O&M services ranging from
operational readiness, asset performance
improvement, and outage execution to total
O&M support. In order to help clients,
the company has developed tools that help
to improve plant performance. For example,
Fluor provides O&M services to
Luminant's fleet of fossil-fuel units, including
the Oak Grove Power Plant. (For
more information, see " Luminant's Oak
Grove Power Plant Earns POWER's Highest
Honor, " in our August 2010 issue or
online at www.powermag.com.)
By getting involved during the conceptual
stage of the outage planning process
with clients, the Fluor staff can use their
benchmarking data to identify potential
improvement opportunities in existing
plant schedules and maintenance techniques
(Figure 1). These opportunities can
be realized through use of subject matter
expertise and lean technologies, supplemental
maintenance and contractor management,
or total program management
44
www.powermag.com
POWER | March 2012
and execution. Graves pointed out that the
planning phase also includes thorough inspections
of the plants and equipment condition,
which is key to reducing " discovery
work " and unplanned activities.
" Every facility has its own outage planning
process, " Graves said. " Whether it is
an in-and-out job or a long term relationship
such as Fluor's 'Alliance' clients, full integration
with our clients in order to provide a
seamless process is the goal. The integration
of planning is crucial. "
Fluor's project team executes a scope
of services with the plants it serves. That
plan is executed in detail in order to maximize
the efficiency of the work performed
during an outage. Promoting efficiency is
an important objective for Fluor because
it helps clients optimize the cost of execution.
Fluor has routinely experienced significant
craft productivity improvements
with this approach, resulting in substantial
cost savings for its clients.
Putting Safety First
When it helps plant operators implement new
outage management policies, Fluor emphasizes
that the first goal should be to complete the outage
in a safe manner. " The safety of all workers
at the site is the top priority with our people, "
Graves emphasized. " When our clients use our
teams, it improves safety at their facilities. "
Fluor's outage planning procedures include
lockout/tagout procedures and other
safety measures, which are built into the outage
plan and schedule. Fluor also utilizes a
formal lessons learned process for continuous
improvement and incorporates those lessons
into future outage planning.
Practice to Achieve Success
Graves explained how outage planning and
1. A plan is the first structure. By getting involved during the conceptual stage of
outage planning with its clients, Fluor maximizes the success of their efforts. Recently, Fluor
completed an environmental improvement, construction, and small capital construction maintenance
program for two units owned by a southeast U.S.-based utility. Courtesy: Fluor

http://www.powermag.com http://www.powermag.com

POWER March 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER March 2012