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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, July-August 2015
Listening to...
inspection and repairs with a technology
we call Zephyr
®
. Zephyr is a data
acquisition system that improves data
collection, the quality of the data, and
our interface with and use of robotics.
It really sets a new standard in steam
generator inspection and repair services.
In fact, We just completed an outage
at Palo Verde for which we did steam
generator inspections using Zephyr in
one day less than expected. We hoped
to save 12 to 16 hours but exceeded
those hopes by saving a day. Saving one
outage day could be worth up to $1M in
revenue gain – depending on the plant’s
output and on market dynamics. When
we proposed using Zephyr at Palo Verde,
Arizona Public Service was concerned
about using a first-of-a-kind technology
and while we were confident it would
work, we had a contingency plan in place.
But the system not only worked – it out-
performed expectations and shortened the
outage, which became a record for that
unit – one of the three units for which we
were performing outage work. It was the
shortest duration that customer had ever
experienced for an outage. The Zephyr
technology was recently on display at
our Westinghouse Symposium for the
Americas held in South Carolina in June
2015. We were really happy that the next
evolution in our technology for steam
generator inspection has proved to be a
game changer.
Also thinking of technology, overall
from an outage management standpoint,
we have the Westinghouse Outage
Control Center (WOCC) at our Madison,
Pennsylvania, facility. It’s our “nerve
center” and is manned 24 hours a day
during the outage seasons, spring and fall.
Communication is streamlined between
the WOCC and our customer sites
through a global field services monitoring
system called WEConnect, which allows
us to maintain real-time schedules and
statuses. We have reporting through
WEConnect that tells us if we’re ahead
or behind scheduled outage duration
times worldwide. The WOCC’s display
screens and smart boards report and
share information, and prioritize issues
for resolution. Through this central point
we facilitate leveraging subject matter
experts remotely so they can troubleshoot
and resolve issues quickly to minimize
any impacts to critical path activities.
This is the case for any one of the 25 sites
that we may be doing field services work
such as refueling the reactor, under-vessel
inspections, in-vessel visual inspections,
steam generator inspections, and more.
Predominantly, the WOCC is heavily
used in the Americas because of the
demand and performance expectations
for outage schedules in the U.S., given
the current marketplace and lower power
prices. These conditions especially
impact the utilities in the merchant
market that bid when their units will go
back online. For example, a unit is in
outage for 30 days and the utility bids the
plant’s generation into the market for day
31. If it isn’t online on that bid date, the
utility will either lose revenue, or pay a
premium to provide the power from the
spot market or a more expensive unit. So
Westinghouse works to make sure we can
help plants meet their outage schedules,
or finish outage work earlier than planned.
The best technical solution is worthless if
it does not fit into a customer’s outage
schedule.
Westinghouse’s fall outage season
is set to be among the largest in the
history of the company. Westinghouse
is known as a predominant player in this
market and our customers know that our
Operating Plant Business is committed
to their continued success. We’ve made
a conscious effort to start to look at
investing more of our capital and research
and development money into innovations
for further advancing all our services in
our Operating Plant Business. We want
to not only keep up with our competition
but advance the “ball” because that is the
expectation that customers have from
Westinghouse.
5.
What is Westinghouse’s Voice of the
Customer program and how do the clients
as well as Westinghouse benefit from it?
Through the Westinghouse Voice
of the Customer program, we ask our
customers to provide us feedback on
all of our products and services. We ask
questions such as: Are we meeting your
technology need? Are we meeting your
expectations with first-of-a-kind products
we introduce? What do you think about
how we are doing? Are we customer
centric? Are we easy to do business with?
We sincerely ask our customers
to give us feedback in a manner that
is a one-way conversation. When we
began this effort a little over a year ago,
I instructed our people to go in and
listen. Do not debate. Do not argue. Let
our customers talk to you. Be different.
Don’t be defensive. Don’t be protective
of the brand. Listen to our customers’
feedback to learn how the Westinghouse
brand is being perceived. And actually,
out of that, we’ve created a dialogue. Our
customers are saying, wow, this is really
interesting. We’ve been learning that our
customers want us to give them feedback
as well – that we are each willing to learn
from the other for everyone’s benefit.
We are hearing from our customers that
Westinghouse is uniquely listening and
taking each customer’s voice seriously.
Arizona Public Service is one of
those customers. And I think if you talked
to their chief nuclear officer now versus
18 months ago, he would tell you that he
is pleasantly surprised, and he is pleased
that Westinghouse has listened and
delivered the quality and superior service
in the last 18 months that he expects. And
he has expressed that he is really glad to
see that Westinghouse listened to what he
said; it’s extremely helpful.
When we conducted the Voice of
the Customer process with the chief
nuclear officer and site vice president
of another utility with which we also
have an extensive business relationship,
both individuals also provided very
positive feedback. They expressed that
Westinghouse has made improvements
on some of our alliance work. Their
comment to us was that over the last year
our alliance has been flourishing in the
operating plant area.
You know, When you get a
comment like that, you don’t need to say
anything else. It’s how you respond to
challenges and make improvements that
will influence customers’ decisions on
products and services – their decisions
are based on experience. We don’t want
to lose customers because we didn’t listen
and respond. So, that’s very important
for us. Therefore, when we have some
