POWER March 2012 - 70

PLANT OPERATIONS
Automating Crew Callouts
Progress Energy has adopted an emergency worker callout program that has
eliminated manual dialing, improved work acceptance rates, and increased
the speed of worker reporting. The standardized process also complies with
union work rules that require equality in overtime opportunities, by seniority.
The business case for automating the worker callout process is compelling.
By Scott Retter, Progress Energy
T
he Crystal River Energy Complex,
owned by Progress Energy Inc., is located
on a 4,700-acre site north of Crystal
River in Citrus County, Florida. On that
site are five units situated in three distinct
areas (Figure 1). Crystal River 3 is an 860MW
nuclear facility that began operation in
1977. The North Plant (center right in Figure
1) consists of the identical coal-fired Crystal
River Units 4 and 5, each rated at 717 MW.
These two units entered commercial service
in December 1982 and October 1984, respectively.
The older South Plant (top of Figure
1) comprises the 373-MW Crystal River Unit
1, which began operation in October 1966,
and the 469-MW Crystal River Unit 2, which
entered service in November 1969. With a
combined capacity of nominally 3,150 MW
net, the complex is among the top 10 largest
electricity-generating facilities in the U.S.
Fossil operations, the focus of this article, include
the North and South Plants and two coal
yards with six miles of conveyors. Each plant
and the coal facility has an assigned operations
and maintenance organization managed
by a reporting headquarters. Shift supervisors,
Progress Energy employees, have the primary
responsibility for day-to-day plant operations.
The remainder of the fossil staff consists of 350
bargaining unit employees. The maintenance
organization is staffed 24/6 in 8-hour shifts; operations
run 24/7 with 12-hour shifts.
Filling the Gaps
One of the less-desirable responsibilities of a
shift supervisor used to be tracking down replacement
operators or maintenance craft employees
when someone called in sick, when
there was emergent work (such as a forced
outage with a need for immediate repairs), or
for routine shift replacements, such as vacation
fills. In past years, a callout for the first two categories
of callouts required a shift supervisor to
make dozens of phone calls and then wait for
returned calls (if the calls were returned at all).
Depending on the number and type of skills
required, this process routinely took four to six
hours of a supervisor's time, which was better
spent monitoring operations.
68
Further complicating the callout process
was the inconsistency across the site's different
fossil organizations and the fact that
there were seven different groups performing
callouts, sometimes twice a day. Also, if the
callouts occurred when a maintenance foreman
was not on site, then the operations shift
supervisor was tasked with that callout. In
other words, managing callouts across such
a complex site was complicated.
The bargaining unit contract requirement
that overtime was to be " fairly distributed "
also introduced a number of challenges. Inconsistencies
with callout prioritization and
with how the contract was interpreted resulted
in numerous bargaining unit grievances,
which consumed more shift supervisor and
valuable plant and union management time. A
better callout process was needed to increase
efficiency and satisfy all of the stakeholders.
Making the Business Case
A few years ago, fossil operations began developing
a business case for investing in callout
automation software. The first step was to
understand the automated callout experience
of the energy delivery side of the business. The
energy delivery organization, well experienced
with callouts-particularly during storm season-had
already implemented ARCOS Inc.'s
automated crew callout and scheduling system
with great success, and use of the software was
now firmly embedded within that organization's
work practices. In fact, the energy delivery organization
reported that, although there was some
resistance at introduction, the organization today
would get a bargaining unit grievance if it were
not using the software, although the company
maintains the right to perform manual callouts
should the need arise.
An expected benefit of the investment in
the ARCOS software was consistent compliance
with the bargaining unit contract requirements
for equal distribution of overtime.
Having a historical record of callouts would
make it simple to demonstrate the company's
compliance with those contract requirements.
Shift supervisors also supported the new automated
process because it meant they were
www.powermag.com
1. Top 10 plant. Progress Energy's Crystal
River Energy Complex consists of a nuclear
plant and the fossil-fired North and South
Plants. The combined output of the complex
is about 3,150 MW. The complex is one of the
10 largest power-generating facilities in the
U.S. Courtesy: Progress Energy
spending less time " dialing for dollars " and
more time supervising plant operations.
Making the business case to upper management
became easier when the effects of labor reporting
times on replacement power costs during
forced outages was included in the evaluation.
The time supervisors spent on manual callouts
also had a significant financial impact.
Automating Callouts
The ARCOS web-based automated callout
solution, selected by plant management for
the two Crystal River Energy Complex fossil
plants, was launched on August 30, 2011.
Implementation of the program began a few
weeks earlier with about one hour of user instruction
and assignment of PIN numbers to
the 350 bargaining unit employees. In addition,
badge cards, refrigerator magnets, and a Q&A
sheet provided instruction on how to use the
system. Later, a Sharepoint site accessible to all
supervisors was added containing FAQs, training
materials, and user manuals. Supervisors
were provided eight hours of training to learn
how to manage the employee lists, implement
callouts, and perform other software management
functions. Managers at the complex attended
a two-hour overview of ARCOS.
One feature of ARCOS was of particular
interest to shift supervisors: web access. The
web-based software allows a supervisor to initiate
a callout from any location, even from home
POWER | March 2012
http://www.powermag.com
POWER March 2012

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