Maintenance, outage file-sharing boosts productivity at four peaking plants
Challenges:
- Downsizing of planning staff created a backlog of outage/maintenance planning and scheduling tasks.
- Personnel at the Kearny, Burlington, Linden, and Essex peaking sites had to communicate together in real time.
- Needed a way to consolidate all reference materials, procedures, IPBs, drawings, and schedules for use by O&M personnel in real time. The existing system relied on multiple platforms and computers and was not user friendly, causing delays in the completion of tasks.
- Transition from hard-copy and paper to a digital platform, but retain the capability to use both.
- The cost for a contractor to build the desired platform, and consolidate the necessary files, was prohibitive.
Solution. Use off-the-shelf software, OneNote, included free with Microsoft Windows already installed on PSEG’s computers. Training was free as well, and fast: It took only about two hours to become proficient on OneNote using a YouTube program.
The software runs on and uses PSEG’s shared drive, located behind the company firewall, so everything is safe and secure.
Results. OneNote has been well-received by staff. Its capabilities are summarized in the illustrations.
Project participants: Al Van Hart, Ron Eilers, Clint Bogan
