News

As we look back at 2019, I think it’s safe to say that we have plenty of things to be thankful for in our USA family, and we’ve never been stronger or more aligned.  We just completed our second year under our new USA Business Model, and I’m happy to report that we seem to have hit the right balance between burden on our members, while still increasing savings and value being delivered.  We continue to drive our operating costs down while driving your savings and value up to new levels.  USA member performance has never been stronger as well.  Our members (you) are being recognized across the industry as high performers in all aspects of operations.  Congratulations to all of you and thank you for the hard work you put in every day to make our industry a success.

Our 2019 USA focus has brought great benefit to the members, in terms of savings, improved station performance, and significantly reduced regulatory risk.  Jim Kitchens and our USA Supply Chain Team have driven over $27.4M in supply chain savings through the first three quarters of 2019.  Brad Vickery and the USA Material Cost-Reduction team have driven over $13M of this $27.4M savings and over $29M in savings since project inception.  Tim Donovan has been so successful at the leadership of the USA Nuclear Safety Culture Assessment (NSCA) process that we are now in high demand to provide these assessments to other nuclear fleets, nuclear suppliers, and non-nuclear organizations, resulting in a direct savings to all USA members.  Jesse Smith and the USA Cyber-Security team have been instrumental in influencing the industry in Cyber-Security, resulting in consistent implementation and reduced regulatory risk.  We don’t talk about it much, but Tim Scoggins continues to drive excellence in industry valve performance as lead of the industry valve team.  Tim’s quiet leadership has resulted in significant performance improvements and industry influence along with the establishment of several key relationships with our valve suppliers.

I would also like to recognize Clint Carter and the USA Advanced Remote Monitoring team.  As we have previously reported, in May USA was awarded $9.2M in funding from the DOE to establish and conduct five pilot remote monitoring projects at Susquehanna, Xcel (Prairie Island and Monticello), Comanche Peak, Luminant Power Optimization Center, and Columbia Station.  We continue to work with the DOE to finalize this contract, but Clint, the team, and USA are already recognized as industry leaders in this area of focus.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our loaned Project Managers John Tripoli and J.R. Trautvetter for their dedication and passion in improving Plant Status Control and Maintenance Fundamentals at our stations this year.  They have done an excellent job and represented USA well in driving performance improvements in their respective areas.

As you can see, we have accomplished a great deal in 2019, but we continue to look at new and more efficient ways to do business and bring value to our members.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Site Rep or any of the USA staff if you have ideas, suggestions, or complaints.  We are only as good as our members involvement and engagement.  Thank you all for your support and have a Happy Holidays!