Loading...American Electric Power Code of Excellence
The Code of Excellence Program, instituted by the IBEW and endorsed by their NECA contractors, is beginning to gain traction around the country.
A quick refresher – it’s a common-sense approach to doing things the right way on the job. A guarantee that your labor force will not only live up to their end of the bargain – but do the little things to ensure their work is on par with what you expect.
We’ve shown you how the code can work for higher education; we’ve shown you how it can be put in play for professional sports teams.
And today – how it is a “must have” in industrial settings – so says one of our country’s leading energy companies.
From West Virginia, here’s ElectricTV’s Dominic Giarratano
AEP is one of the biggest electrical providers in the US and operates in 11 states. Their John Amos power plant is currently undergoing a billion-dollar project done under the Code of Excellence, a program that outlines expectations during a project for NECA contractors and their IBEW labor force.
Thomas P. Householder, Director, Administrative Services, AEP
“The John Amos plant is a 2,900 megawatt power facility. Three units, one 1,300 megawatt unit and two 800 megawatt units. And it’s roughly 35 years old, and it’s been modified multiple times over the past several years. In fact, we’re finishing up a billion-dollar project here at John Amos right now.”
That project? The last of 3 FGD scrubbers.
Thomas P. Householder, Director, Administrative Services, AEP
“Roughly 20 percent of the work hours on the project are IBEW hours. So they are key and crucial to the success of this project. Several years ago, I was involved with President Ed Hill in a discussion, and he was initiating the Code of Excellence for the IBEW. He had asked me, as an owner, what my opinion might be. I told him that I thought the values that he expressed in that conversation were those that we, as owners, expected, and that if we weren’t getting those, then we needed to do something about that. Mr. Hill put a program together and has brought it forth for us to use, and we see tremendous benefits by using this program to involve the IBEW and the IBEW members in line with the contractors and us as owners needs to be successful in these projects.”
The Code of Excellence is creating a common set of expectations between owners, contractors and labor – and setting these expectations up front is a common sense approach that just works.
Thomas P. Householder, Director, Administrative Services, AEP
“AEP has several expectations for every project that they operate. One is that he job be safe and productive. On time, within budget, and with a lot of respect to the environment. And this program, the Code of Excellence, it espouses those same things. It tells us that every member of the IBEW that comes to our job site would have those traits and that they would understand the needs of the owner, the ultimate customer. And that they would come to that job site trying to make the owner successful.”
The set of challenges on an industrial site is different than any other type of construction and plays perfectly to what the Code is trying to accomplish.
Thomas P. Householder, Director, Administrative Services, AEP
“An industrial site, there’s a lot of coordination, because there are so many activities, diverse activities. And each one of these, let’s say, eight components, of these large scrubber projects, might be equivalent to a large hospital project. We’ll pull miles and miles of cable on this project. Not hundreds of feet, we’ll pull miles of cable. We’ll run miles of conduit; we’ll make thousands of terminations in this project. It’s very extensive. And we’ll have skilled electricians that have done it before. They’ll have built this plant; they’ve maintained this plant for the last 35 years. When they come to the job site, they know what they’re doing. And that’s why we have them back. There are other options, but the IBEW brings to us value for our dollar. And when we have the cooperation that we get through the Code of Excellence program, that value is accentuated. And it’s more value for us as an owner.”
“In many ways, the IBEW has led the change in the labor industry. President Hill’s leadership, and his indoctrination and execution of the Code of Excellence have been beneficial for the evolution of the IBEW. And as a result, I look at the way the IBEW was 15 years ago and I look at the IBEW today, I see a better product, and one that’s more viable for us as an owner.”
NECA’s role is expanded under the code of excellence. Under the code, as always, NECA contractors are looking out for the health of an overall project because when an owner makes money on their project, a NECA contractor does, as well.
Thomas P. Householder, Director, Administrative Services, AEP
“NECA is the glue that binds the contractors, the union, and ultimately the owners together. And they arrange and they make sure that we have reasonable negotiations and that we don’t have labor disruptions.”
The code of excellence is a new way of doing business. What does it mean for an owner, and what can they take away from using the it on one of their sites?
Thomas P. Householder, Director, Administrative Services, AEP
“I can’t think of any reason why an owner wouldn’t want to use the Code of Excellence. In fact, we’re going to demand that it be used on our projects in the future because we see so much potential in using the Code of Excellence on our projects.”