EUCG Names Best-Performing Fossil Power Plants at Annual Fall Workshop in Dallas

    DALLAS, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Lower Colorado River Authority's (LCRA)
 Fayette Power Project and Alliant Energy's (NYSE:   LNT) Sixth Street Plant
 took top honors for EUCG's "Best Performer" power plant award at the
 organization's annual fall workshop last month. EUCG is a global
 association of energy and electric utility professionals who discuss
 current and emerging industry issues, share best practices and exchange
 data for benchmarking purposes.
     Runners-up included American Electric Power's (NYSE:   AEP) Mountaineer
 Plant and Alliant Energy's Edgewater, M.L. Kapp and Lansing power plants.
     Winners were chosen from a large dataset of plant-level cost and
 performance data submitted by EUCG member utilities. EUCG's independent
 third-party contractor analyzed the data and then rank-ordered the plants
 to determine the top three performers for both the large and small plant
 award categories. Plant performance was gauged on critical performance
 measures such as equivalent availability, forced outage rate and unplanned
 outage factors. EUCG member companies in the U.S., Canada and Asia
 submitted data to EUCG for consideration in this year's Best Performer
 awards.
     The fall workshop awards are based on one-year plant performance
 between January and December of the previous year, 2005. During EUCG's
 annual spring workshop, the organization recognizes best-performing plants
 over a five-year period. "The winners have plenty to be proud of, based on
 the fact that we had so many well-performing member plants in our
 database," said Jim Patrick of Ameren (NYSE:   AEE), who serves as
 chairperson of EUCG's Fossil Committee.
     "The strategies that each of our 'Best Performer' winners took to
 achieve their outstanding performance were both creative and scientific,"
 said George Sharp, EUCG marketing director, from American Electric Power
 (NYSE:   AEP). "Our award winners are both relatively old and relatively new
 plants. Each has a unique story regarding how they formulate and execute
 business plans to achieve high performance."
     Large Plant Best Performer: Fayette Power Project (LCRA)
     LCRA's Fayette Power Project, located near La Grange in Fayette County,
 Texas, is a three-unit, 1,641-megawatt coal plant whose first two units
 went online in 1979 and 1980 and are co-owned with the City of Austin. The
 third unit was commissioned in 1988. The plant burns sub-bituminous coal
 from the Powder River Basin. Plant Manager Ken Taylor credited the plant's
 employees for the award. "The Fayette Power Project is fortunate to have a
 highly skilled, dedicated work force. Our average tenure at the plant is 20
 years, and this experience is invaluable and translates into high
 performance." Taylor also believes the plant is well positioned to continue
 performing well into the future. "We have instituted some unique programs
 at the plant to ensure the vast experience base of our employees is
 documented and properly transferred as our employees reach retirement age,"
 he said. In addition, Taylor credits his employees' ability to plan,
 schedule and execute outages as a major contributor to the plant's success.
 "Planned outages are managed as a project. We not only seek employee input
 to minimize cost and schedule, but we also engage our contractors in the
 planning process to ensure no stone is left unturned when execution rolls
 around."
     Small Plant Best Performer: Sixth Street (Alliant Energy)
     Alliant Energy's Sixth Street Plant, located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
 along the Mississippi River, is a 60-megawatt coal plant whose currently
 operating units entered service between 1930 and 1950. The station's
 primary role is not only to provide electrical power to the grid, but also
 to export steam to the surrounding community. "The steam load provides
 additional efficiencies that really improve the economics of the plant,"
 said Doug Kopp, plant manager for the Sixth Street Plant.
     Alliant's M.L. Kapp and Lansing power stations took second and third
 place in the small plant category. This is the second year in a row that
 Alliant Energy plants have taken the top three awards in that category.
 "It's unusual for a single company to sweep an award category, particularly
 two years in a row," said Jim Patrick, EUCG Fossil Committee chairperson.
 "As I said last year when they swept the small plant awards, Alliant must
 be doing something pretty special."
     EUCG will hold its 2007 spring workshop in Savannah, Ga. All energy
 professionals are invited. Interested parties should visit the EUCG website
 (http://www.eucg.org) for more information.
     About EUCG: EUCG is a global association of energy and electric utility
 professionals who discuss current and emerging industry issues, share best
 practices and exchange data for benchmarking purposes. The association is
 organized into five separate committees that represent specific utility
 functions: Transmission & Distribution (T&D), Fossil Plants, Hydro Plants,
 Nuclear Plants, and Information Technology (IT) departments. Members attend
 semi-annual workshops that focus on strategic planning, maintenance
 practices, operations management, outage management and various other
 aspects of the electric utility business. Membership is open to all utility
 companies and professionals worldwide. Interested parties should contact
 Pat Kovalesky, EUCG executive director, at 1-623-572-4140. Email:
 eucgexec@quixnet.net. Website: http://www.eucg.org.
 
 

SOURCE EUCG