Management – Arrow Canyon Complex

Training, developing plant engineers

Challenge.

With no standard job description or development plan for new engineers assigned to powerplants, plant engineers were often focused on different activities from plant to plant with little or no direction. Their activities were related to management’s “concerns of the day” and were often reactive in nature. Plant engineers often were overwhelmed by the day-to-day demands on their time while still not meeting management expectations.

Solution.

Engineering management worked to establish a standard job description and development plan that features clearly defined and measurable duties and responsibilities for plant engineers. Plant engineer duties and responsibilities were defined as follows:

• Management of change (MOC) coordinator:
• Monitors the status of all active MOC items and has overall engineering control and oversight of all design changes, modifications, and retrofits.
• Availability improvement process (AIP) facilitator: Reviews and analyzes NERC GADS unit availability data, monitors the active AIP action items and the progress of AIP teams, and provides technical and engineering support for AIP action items and assists AIP team efforts.
• Insurance risk management coordinator: Acts as the insurer’s point of contact for the generating plant, coordinates the insurer’s site visits and activities, and tracks and monitors the insurer’s risk recommendations.n Responsible for capital projects: Develops business cases, monitors and tracks the status of all open projects, reviews and updates the monthly capital variance report, and provides technical direction and oversight for corporate project engineers and contractors.
• Responsible for document control program: Tracks revisions to controlled plant technical documentation, drawings, P&IDs, instruction books, control logic, and site plot plans; ensures that drawing and document changes and/or revisions are captured using the MOC process and updated in the document archives; and maintains a status log of all document additions, updates, and/or revisions.
• Engineering assistance to plant personnel: Assists O&M personnel in resolving plant technical issues, provides technical analysis to assist management with economic O&M decisions, and assists management with the determination of root causes and the development of corrective actions.
• Assist with planned outage work scopes and schedules: Contributes to the technical development of planned outage work scopes and schedules and provides technical oversight during inspection and maintenance evolutions for critical plant equipment.
• Assist management with inspection and permitting of regulated equipment: Ensures all boiler and pressure vessel operating permits are up-to-date, tracks and schedules all boiler and pressure- vessel permit inspections, and monitors the performance of equipment inspections, code repairs, NDE, and safety valve maintenance.
• Support company and plant safety programs: Provides engineering and design support as needed to resolve plant safety issues.

Results.

The plant engineer’s job duties are now structured, organized, and measurable. There is more accountability for the engineer’s activities with a process in place to track and analyze the time spent on their various assignments. Time entry codes were created for each of the nine categories above so the engineer’s activities could be tracked and analyzed. Managers and supervisors can now analyze and evaluate the engineer’s activities. They can use this information to determine whether the engineer has been favoring a particular assignment, neglecting a duty, or needs additional resources. The engineers provide monthly engineering reports detailing their engineering activities and the status of their primary responsibilities.

Results.

When seconds can make the difference between life and death, the installation of the door signage has enhanced the emergency response planning at Granite Ridge. When contacting local emergency services, the CRO now can give the responders the number which corresponds to the closest door of the emergency which will eliminate confusion and reduce the response time if an escort is not available.