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Gas Plant Overtime

Report Information

Date Issued
Report Number
2024-17511
Report Type
Inspection / Evaluation
Description
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) currently operates 101 natural gas- and fuel oil-fired generators at 18 sites.  During 2020, we performed an evaluation of overtime worked at TVA gas plants and found a significant amount of overtime was being worked by employees at some plants.  In response to that evaluation, TVA hired additional full-time employees at some gas plants.  However, overtime worked at gas plants has continued to increase since our previous evaluation.  Specifically, between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2024, employees at TVA’s gas plants were paid a total of $119.75 million.  Of this $119.75 million, $33.6 million (28 percent) was paid for 369,218 hours of overtime to 360 employees. To help manage the effects of fatigue, TVA Safety Procedure 18.018, Fatigue Management, establishes “. . . a process to provide reasonable assurance that the effects of fatigue and degraded alertness do not impact an individual’s ability to safely and competently perform their duties.”  Due to the high number of overtime hours worked at some gas plants and the potential impact on fatigue management, we performed an evaluation to assess TVA’s management of overtime at gas plants. We determined significant amounts of overtime were worked by employees at some gas plants.  Specifically, we determined 73 percent (269,586 hours) of the 369,218 hours of overtime was performed at 7 of 18 plants between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2024.  The overtime worked was the equivalent of 61 full-time employees.  We also determined some employees worked significant amounts of overtime.  There were 109 instances where employees worked over 1,000 hours of overtime in a single year, including three with over 1,800 hours. Additionally, we determined that TVA may not be accurately capturing the effects of fatigue because (1) fatigue evaluations are not being performed and (2) fatigue data is not being trended as required by the Fatigue Management procedure.
Joint Report
No
Agency Wide
Yes (agency-wide)
Questioned Costs
$0
Funds for Better Use
$0
View report on Oversight.gov

Recommendations

We recommend the Vice President, Power Operations, Gas, Hydro, and Integration, conduct a business case analysis to determine if hiring additional employees would be less costly than paying overtime.

We recommend the Director, Safety, evaluate Tennessee Valley Authority -Safety Procedure 18.018, Fatigue Management, and Tennessee Valley Authority Standard Programs and Processes 18.001, Safety Program, to determine if fatigue is being effectively identified and mitigated at gas plants.