POWER April 2015 - 52

Safety
plant they may have put 10, 20, or even 30 or
more years of their lives into is retiring.
That means the retirement process has to
be handled with dignity, both toward staff
and toward the plant itself.
" We really try to do it on a solid level of
pride and dignity, as well as a legacy, " Mullinax
said. " We call it gracefully walking our
plants into retirement. "
Upper management needs to make it clear
that a retiring plant is still valued until the
day it retires, even if it may be pushed down
the dispatch order.
" It's important that they still feel like an
important part of the family, " Lee noted. " Being
able to contribute on the days when system
demand is high is a big point for these
folks, so we make sure when that happens
that some kind of appreciation is shared. "
" Little things " like plant cleanliness and appearance
are not little things in these situations.
" The housekeeping standards in our retirRS
PM ad 010914_Layout 1 1/9/14 8:16 AM Page 1
ing plants are really good, " Mullinax said.
" We are continuing to keep our floors waxed
and shiny. We want to keep that pride level
extremely high. Our staff want to walk out of
the plant with the same pride that people did
60 years ago when they walked into it. "
Even when the economic reasons for retirement
are clear, some long-time plant staff
and plant management may be inclined to
blame themselves, wondering if there might
have been things they could have done differently
over the years to keep the plant
operating. That risk has to be met head-on,
Mullinax said.
" We make sure our people understand
that our plants are not being closed because
of them. It is not their fault, it is not because
they have not maintained them, not
because they have not managed them. The
plants are being closed down because of
economic reasons. "
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Creative O&M
Scheduling a plant for retirement involves
other significant changes, including a major
shift in its operations and maintenance
(O&M) posture. With the operations horizon
contracting to a few more years at most, the
goal shifts to getting the plant safely to its retirement
date without major capital expenses.
That places an extra burden on maintenance
staff to harness their creativity.
" Clearly you're not making capital investDo
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ments, " Lee noted. " We have made prudent
maintenance spending decisions, and our plant
managers have done a wonderful job keeping
costs under control. We've done a lot of patchit-up
O&M work to avoid any big capital
spending and big component replacement. "
This means added demands on plant staff
to be more flexible and innovative. AEP has
seen availability of its retiring units degrade
over time, but on the whole, its plant staff
have been " amazingly good at being there
when we needed them, " Lee said.
Mullinax echoed those thoughts: " We
are not spending large capital dollars for the
long-term view on those plants. The dollars
we're spending are to keep them reliable. "
That means maintenance staff are sometimes
called upon to stretch component
lives further than what might once have
been envisioned.
" We have some of the most talented
Creating Value.
Carver Pump Company
2415 Park Avenue
Muscatine, IA 52761
563.263.3410
Fax: 563.262.0510
www.carverpump.com
CIRCLE 29 ON READER SERVICE CARD
52
www.powermag.com
POWER | April 2015
people in the industry, " he said, " and they
have really stepped up with some ways to
keep our assets very reliable in a very low
budget environment. "
The results have been impressive for TVA.
Mullinax explained, " One of our units right
now that is working toward a world-record
run, that has been online 941 days [Paradise
Unit 2; see article in the April 2013 issue], is
one that we are also walking into retirement
three years from now. "
http://www.carverpump.com http://www.powermag.com
POWER April 2015

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