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Minutes of the Fall 2006 “IUSTA” Meeting
in Allentown, Pennsylvania

 The meeting was held at The Holiday Inn and Conference Center in Allentown, PA on Thursday, October 12th and Friday, October 13th, 2006.  There were 13 attendees representing 7 utility companies.  PPL, Inc. (formerly Pennsylvania Power & Light Co.) hosted the meeting and had 1 delegate.  There were 3 delegates from Pepco and 2 from First Energy, PECO- Exelon and Delmarva Power. United Illuminating Co had 1 delegate present, and Public Service Electric and Gas had 2 for their presentation on Thursday morning. 

Thursday, October 12, 2006
John Wirth from PPL opened the meeting at approximately 9:00 AM with a welcome message after a time of networking and continental breakfast.  George Greytak from United Illuminating Co had copies of the IUSTA Constitution and By-Laws.
John Floyd (Chairman), from Pepco distributed an Agenda to each attendee.  A sign-in Attendance Roster for this Meeting, and a spreadsheet of attendees from the Spring 2006 Meeting, and the Minutes from that meeting were available from Jeff Dixon (Secretary), from Delmarva Power.  Everyone present introduced themselves by name, job title and company affiliation.

1.)  George Greytak from United Illuminating Co presented the “Time Merit Progression Program” that is used at UI.  A completely new program is being developed.  A 4-page   hand-out of the overall program was provided, along with an Overview page and a Performance Standards / Job Classifications page. This new program at UI requires 5 years for a new hire to attain the top level.  So far, Year 1 has been developed and roll-out began in November of 2005.  The experience at UI is that each hour of classroom training requires approximately 8 hours of development time.

2.)  Jim Livingston from Pepco showed a videotape, and some still photographs on DVD of a fire that occurred in a 230 kV Pepco substation.  An oil-filled potential transformer caught fire and was totally destroyed.  A Low Oil Level alarm had been received and an outage was planned to repair the PT before the fire. Coincidentally, this fire happened the day after a Fire Safety Training session was help by Pepco for local fire companies. Later at the meeting, Jim provided copies of the DVD for attendees to take.

3.)  After a short break, Frank Hunter and Tom Devine from PSE&G gave a presentation about the follow-up from a series of accidents at PS involving falls from bucket trucks.  There were 2 accidents and then a fatality in the Fall of 2005.  Frank said the investigations revealed that a culture had evolved throughout the Company where employees were routinely working aloft with no fall protection device (i.e.: full-body harness), even though they were provided and employees had been trained how to use them and were told when they were required.  PSE&G contracted with a videotape company who actually created an animated DVD that depicted what was believed to have happened during the fatal accident, as well as during one of the other incidents.  All employees who work aloft were required to attend a meeting to see the DVD.  PS also found that a lot of employees had a full-body harness that was in need of replacement, or had one that showed virtually no use.  The DVD had footage from Union Leadership that supported the employees follow all PS safety rules and work practices.  This DVD was extremely well-done and PS provided copies of the DVD for attendees.  Reminder:  PS asks that you provide them the name(s) of any company that you share this DVD with. Also, the OSHA investigation into the events of the fatal accident resulted in no citation or fined levied against PSE&G.

4.)  After lunch, H. Lee Smith from DC Systems Sectionalizing Project gave a presentation on the SCADA software the company is installing in Pepco substations.  The system provides circuit and fault analysis that can improve reliable and reduce outage times.  Lee’s presentation was a PowerPoint Slideshow.

5.)  After a short break, a discussion took place about future IUSTA Meetings.  It was decided that the Spring 2007 meeting would be hosted by First Energy in Reading PA.  The meeting will be pushed out to March 22nd and 23rd to coincide with a local, very
 
popular jazz festival nearby.  Suggested Agenda items:  Relay Testers, Fall Protection Devices from UI & PSE&G.  Others?..................

6.)  Round Table Discussion

• Jeff Dixon (Delmarva Power) talked about a 4 kV flash incident that happened in Perryville, MD this past summer.  He showed the burned hard hat, safety glasses and rubber sleeves that the Lineman was wearing.  It was a great testimonial to the effectiveness of PPE; the Lineman’s flash burns would have been much more serious without the PPE.  Delmarva is considering changes to the whole work practice for the task being done that day. 

Jeff also presented information he found about an incident that happened in Georgia, where an aerosol can of “air” exploded in a pick-up truck.  The material was supposed to be used as a cleaner, similar to that used to dust out keyboards.  The person used the spray can to clean the dashboard and overhear console in the truck.  The he rolled down the window and attempted to light a cigarette.  The culprit in this case turned out to be the “1.1-difluoroethane” in the “canned air”.  One of the lessons from this is to only use products that have been reviewed by knowledgeable people and deemed to be safe.
Jeff mentioned that Delmarva Power’s safety performance has not been good so far this year; no major accidents, but lots of OSHA Recordables and Fleet Accidents.

• Rodney Walker (PECO / Exelon) mentioned an incident that resulted in a fire at a gas station because of a cell phone call while re-fueling.
• A switching incident involving a Substation Electrician, where he attempted to attach a tag on an energized piece of equipment.  He suffered 1st and 2nd degree burns, and was required to undergo a  4-week refresher training course.

Friday, October 13, 2006

After a time of networking and a continental breakfast, the meeting continued.
 
7.)  Gary Hoffman from Advanced Power Technologies gave a presentation about the temperature controller devices his company offers for substation power transformers.  They offer a TTC-1000 Electronic Temperature Monitor, and have approximately 1,000 in service.  APT has a 4,000 square foot assembly plant in Randolph, NJ. They offer free training and a lifetime warranty on their products.  The training sessions are both classroom presentations and hands-on field exercises, tailored to meet the needs of the utility customer.  APT would consider doing a “Train-the-Trainer” type session in the future

8.)  John Wirth of PPL offered a tour of the Training Facility and answered questions