Best Practices
Mark Gabriel is CEO of United Power, Inc.
It is time for the electric utility industry to rise to a crisis once again – this time for wildfire. In 1979, following the incident at Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, President Jimmy Carter constituted what became known as the Kemeny Commission to look into issues concerning the safe operations of the nation’s nuclear power industry.
The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) started in December 1979 with two major goals:
Monitor and evaluate appropriate safety standards including those for management, quality assurance, and operating procedures, as well as practices at nuclear facilities; and
Provide a systematic gathering, review, and analysis of operating experience at all nuclear power plants – coupled with an industrywide international communications network to facilitate the speedy flow of this information to affected parties.
INPO has major impacts on utilities operating power plants as it assured insurers that the plants were being operated properly and, fortuitously, showed a dramatic improvement in operating capacity and plant uptime. Additionally, best practices reduced power plant operating costs and may be the reason the nation’s nuclear facilities are able to get their operating licenses extended.