Solutions Strategies

Last update:

06/20/2007

It is not necessary to change.

Survival is not mandatory

--W Edwards Deming

Northeast Utilities, Conneticut

What was achieved:

We enabled Northeast to implement new configuration management processes for their nuclear plants. This had a major financial impact because:

• Our client was able to effectively demonstrate to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission that they had clear control of their nuclear plant configuration

• Our client was able to effectively operate its nuclear plants under post TMI guidelines.

Further economic advantages flowed from Northeast’s ability to consider new standards of nuclear components through the improved configuration management processes.

The Project

Northeast Utilities is the dominant supplier of electrical power in the state of Connecticut, USA. Northeast was  a pioneer in the use of commercial nuclear power in North America. As a pioneer they have some of the  oldest nuclear generating facilities as well as some of the newer plant designs. This mixture of plant  design and technology brings with it the challenges of managing sophisticated equipment of a wide variety and that requires a comprehensive approach to plant and design Configuration Management.

The US nuclear power industry began to apply the lessons learned from the events at Three Mile Island (TMI)  in 1979, on all nuclear utility companies, including Northeast. They were challenged to revisit their design  basis for existing plants and to strengthen their management of on-going modifications to their
generation assets.

Northeast’s advisors understood the complexity of the post TMI nuclear industry environment and
recognised the need for a comprehensive process modelling and design methodology to support
 Northeast’s needs. Our consulting team was brought in to apply our High Performance
 Enterprise Engineering™ approach to address three specific areas where Northeast felt it did not
 have sufficient process understanding and control. Our team completed the work for Northeast in the
 following areas;

We developed four dimensional business models of the existing “Plant Configuration Management” processes. After modelling the “As-is” process we provided a GAP Analysis, comparing the existing processes with what was considered “Best Business Practice” in configuration management, post TMI. Our team developed an action plan for the required changes to the processes and Northeast undertook the implementation of the required changes in their configuration management processes.

Following TMI the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission expanded its regulations on nuclear plant machinery.  Our consulting team modelled Northeast’s processes in order to assure that they were in compliance.  Issues and root causes were analysed by our team. We recommended a plan for Northeast to  implement changes that would keep them in compliance with the NRC’s requirements.