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The likelihood of fire is lower at hydro plants than at coal plants, but hydro plants are not without fire risk. Hydroelectric stations share many of the same fire hazards as coal plants, such as oil-filled transformers, electrical cables and switchgear, air-cooled generators, and large quantities of combustible hydraulic oil. Hydro plants are typically an underground/underwater windowless structure.

This review was initiated to assess recent efforts by the TVA Nuclear Power Group (NPG) to improve outage performance. The objective of the OIG's review was to determine whether the initiatives implemented by the NPG to improve outage performance achieved planned results and current improvement efforts can be improved. We found cost structure development and controls initiatives improved outage performance with respect to cost; however, outage duration and dose continue to miss business plan goals.

Fires in substations can severely impact the supply of power to customers and the utility company's revenue and assets. These fires can also create a fire hazard to utility personnel, emergency personnel, and the general public. There are 14 sites managed by Transmission that have fire protection systems to protect their 500-kilovolt transformers.

The OIG audited electronic communications by the TVA Board of Directors. The objective was to evaluate controls over the electronic distribution of TVA business information to and from the Board by non-TVA managed mediums. We determined current Board email practices were consistent with the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014. In addition, we found the third-party service used to distribute sensitive documents to the Board had appropriate processes and controls in place as reported by another independent audit company.

The OIG evaluated the efficiency of TVA's hiring process from when the need to hire an annual employee was identified until the position was filled.

Nuclear Power Group (NPG) Business Practice (BP) 247, Revision 9, Emerging Regulatory Issues Management Process, "establishes a process to identify, categorize, manage, monitor and provide statuses to senior management on issues that may have regulatory impacts on Nuclear Power Group (NPG) or NPG managed material licenses." The OIG determined the process for addressing nuclear emerging regulatory issues (ERI) is generally effective.During the period of our review, September 26, 2009, through September 26, 2014, we identified no instances where TVA overlooked an ERI related to NRC-

At the request of TVA Supply Chain, the OIG audited the costs billed to TVA by Hayward Baker, Inc. (HBI), for remediation work performed at Blue Ridge Hydro Dam under Contract No. 6902. Our objective was to determine if the costs billed were in accordance with the contract terms and conditions. The audit included $2,928,773 in costs and fee billed by HBI for work performed between December 2012 and April 2013. TVA disputed $947,282 of the amount billed and paid HBI $1,981,491 on December 31, 2013.

The OIG audited TVA's invoice approval process to (1) assess TVA's policies and procedures related to the review and approval of invoices, (2) determine compliance with applicable policies and procedures, and (3) determine if TVA's invoice approvers have adequate information, including clear contractual compensation provisions and sufficient invoice detail to effectively perform their role.

The OIG performed this audit to determine Enterprise Information Security and Policy (EISP) organization's (1) current effectiveness, (2) actions completed in the implementation of management action plans in response to a previous audit and TVA IT's 1,000 Days to Success initiative (IT1K); and (3) the design of management action plans and the IT1K program and identify gaps related to any outcomes not met. EISP has improved operations through the expansion of internal processes.

The OIG completed procedures agreed to by TVA and the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) to assist CRS in determining TVA compliance with annual reporting requirements of its Green-e Energy program for the reporting year 2014.This is a requirement of the CRS accreditation and certification program. Results of the procedures performed were provided to CRS and TVA. Summary Only