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Turnover of Projects to Power Operations

Report Information

Date Issued
Report Number
2019-15684
Report Type
Inspection / Evaluation
Description
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Generation Projects and Fleet Services organization supports the execution of TVA’s strategic asset plan and outage plans through projects and services, including capital projects for the Power Operations (PO) organization to support equipment reliability at TVA’s coal, gas, and hydro plants. Due to the importance of effective project management to TVA’s mission and potential issues identified during Organizational Effectiveness evaluations, we performed an evaluation of project turnover to PO. The objective of our evaluation was to determine if TVA is effectively managing the turnover of projects to PO. The scope of our evaluation included capital projects for PO’s generation assets managed by the Generation Projects group. We limited our evaluation to the implementation and closure activities related to the turnover of those projects to PO. We determined TVA is not effectively managing the turnover of projects to PO because the project turnover processes were not aligned and the inconsistencies led to project issues related to (1) turnover and customer acceptance, (2) completion of the design change notice, and (3) project closure. In addition, we identified opportunities for improvement related to (1) time frames for completion of the design change notice process and (2) project ownership.
Joint Report
Yes
Participating OIG
Tennessee Valley Authority OIG
Agency Wide
Yes (agency-wide)
Questioned Costs
$0
Funds for Better Use
$0
View report on Oversight.gov

Recommendations

We recommend the Senior Vice President, PO, prioritize completion of the DCN process.

We recommend the Senior Vice President, PO, reinforce the requirement for RTO approval by plant management to ensure it occurs before the equipment is returned to service.

We recommend the Senior Vice President, PO, implement time frames for completion of the DCN process.

We recommend the Senior Vice President, PO, address issues identified that delayed completion of DCNs, including (1) vendors providing inaccurate drawings or not providing drawings timely, (2) TVA corporate groups not updating related drawings and UNID labels timely, (3) the DCN process being bypassed, and (4) project personnel not collaborating to identify and incorporate spare part or preventive maintenance changes timely, and implement any lessons learned for ongoing and future projects.

We recommend the Senior Vice President, PO, evaluate projects returned to service where RTO has not been signed to determine if the equipment can be operated safely and reliably.