Electric Energy : Change Reaction
Energy Executive Spotlight
Written by John Zorabedian   
Monday, 31 March 2008
Electric Energy : Change Reaction - Energy Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Under pressure to reduce mercury and greenhouse gas emissions, Bill Sheppard applies performance lessons learned from the nuclear industry.
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It was a vastly different era when Electric Energy, Inc. (EEI) first fired up the boilers at its coal-burning power plant in 1952. With regulatory and market pressures driving up costs in recent years, efficiency, high performance, and adaptability are not just essential for the Joppa, Ill. plant’s operators, but mandatory.

Bill Sheppard, VP of operations - Electric Energy : Change Reaction - Energy Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Bill Sheppard, VP of operations
EEI’s Bill Sheppard spent 12 years in the nuclear power industry before taking a top management job at the 1086 megawatt Joppa facility in 1990, where he is now vice president in charge of operations. Borrowing the demanding operating and performance principles of his nuclear industry experience, Sheppard has helped transform EEI’s plant into a highly-tuned machine. In 10 of the last 11 years, the plant has operated at more than 90% of capacity.

Looking ahead to 2015, when EEI will be required by the state of Illinois to reduce its mercury output by 90%, sulfur-dioxide (SO2) by 68%, and nitrous-oxide (NOx) emissions by approximately 35%, Sheppard is readying the company to adopt technology that will keep the plant operating at the highest possible output while maintaining compliance. These major undertakings require a culture, Sheppard said, that embraces three P’s: protection of resources, performance at a high level, and preparation for change.

Sheppard has sought to eliminate at his plant the poor processes and bad management habits identified by the nuclear industry after the meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979. These types of failures would not have the same type of catastrophic consequences at a coal-fired power plant as they would at a nuclear reactor, but the idea is to root out the kinds of problems that lead to poor performance, lack of efficiency, and recurring problems.

As part of a strenuous budgetary process, EEI establishes performance goals for the year and specific objectives for each department and manager. “We set high expectations for results,” Sheppard said. “We don’t want to be the best of a sorry lot—we want to compare ourselves to the best in the industry.” And the company keeps everyone focused on achieving those goals through a performance-based pay program.

“When we are finished developing our annual performance objectives and budget, we have our operating plan for the next year,” Sheppard said. “We know it’s going to change because things are going to break that we didn’t anticipate. But we have something to keep us focused, to keep us incentivized—because our pay depends on it—and it’s very process oriented and results oriented.”

Cleaner coal
The environmental regulations in Illinois are far more rigorous than national standards set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. EEI currently captures roughly 10% of the mercury contained in the coal it burns, but will be required to remove 90% of the mercury content starting in seven years. And although the requirements for SO2 and NOx reduction are currently under review, the state’s requirements will be similarly stringent.

EEI is in the process of selecting the scrubber technology it will use for SO2 removal, which Sheppard said should be in place on two of the plant’s six units by the end 2012, followed by two more units the next year. The company will most likely opt to build so-called wet scrubbers, which can be more capital intensive to construct, but offer more flexibility in the types of coal the plant can burn.

Yet if EEI determines that it should switch from a low-sulfur coal to a local Illinois source with higher sulfur and nitrogen content, it could be forced to retrofit its units with selective catalytic reduction devices to meet NOx emissions requirements, costing from $180 million to $200 million.

In the meantime, EEI has been able to reduce its emissions of NOx by nearly 10% using a combination of technologies that fine tune the combustion of the boilers to burn off more of the gas before it is sent up the flue stacks. “We’ve been able to trim a bit,” Sheppard said.

Maximizing efficiency
With massive capital outlays on the horizon, the name of the game for EEI is maximizing its output and preventing the loss of valuable megawatt hours. Five years ago, the plant initiated a predictive maintenance program that uses risk analysis to determine which components of the plant are at most risk to fail and where it is best to spend money to reduce failures.

“That program has been helpful in identifying the things we could do other than letting equipment run until failure, or tearing equipment apart to inspect it,” Sheppard said. Predictive maintenance involves monitoring parameters and diagnosing the condition of the equipment, using analysis of vibration, motor current, thermography, and implementing better lubrication practices.

Two software programs by General Physics and Smart Signal monitor how equipment is running and are able to detect when there is a deviation from an established baseline of performance. Programs like these have saved the plant several hundred lost megawatt-hours of production, Sheppard said. “We believe that our keys to success are being structured, being data driven, and having a method of focusing on what we’re doing, so that we hopefully do things right,” he said.

In the late ’80s, the nuclear industry figured out that correcting procedures, training, and management practices to avoid repeating mistakes was the most effective way to reduce failures, Sheppard said, and the fossil-fuel industry can adopt those principles. “We do a pretty good job of finding out why things are happening and putting something in place to prevent recurrence,” he said. “You have to take full advantage of what you’ve learned.”

Sheppard likes to tell employees that everyone’s job at the plant is to add value every day and avoid losses. “In most of our jobs we can add value every day, and that shows up over time,” Sheppard said. “But we can have one event that creates a huge loss. So we need to focus on protecting the resources and avoiding the losses.”
 
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