14 minute read
People Advantage
Building the Future... Together
The strength of TVA is our people. Together, we are building a stronger future — one that propels our region forward as an innovative, thriving and beautiful place to call home.
Carol Barajas
Team works together to accomplish heavy lift at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
Safety always comes fi rst.
TVA employees and contractors live by these words, and never were they truer than when TVA replaced four steam generators at our Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2 in Spring City, Tennessee.
The complex project, which required a year of planning and a few months of execution, will help support decades of reliable generation of carbon-free energy.
“From a complexity standpoint, the only thing that would have been more complex would have been constructing an entire unit,” said Tim Rausch, Executive Vice President and Chief
Nuclear Offi cer at TVA. “We moved steam generators weighing 800,000 pounds each, and the team of TVA employees and 1,200 supplemental workers performed more than 26,000 tasks during the outage.” “The project combined state-of-the-art technology, precise choreography and extensive planning put into action — all with an accuracy that is measured in millimeters and completed in a nuclear energy environment,” he said.
The person at the heart of the choreography was Carol Barajas, vice president of the Watts Bar steam generator replacement project. Under Carol’s leadership, the team — which included laborers from every trade imaginable — completed the work with no impact to individual, radiological, nuclear or environmental safety.
Prior to being taken offl ine for the scheduled outage, Unit 2 had produced more than 11.4 billion kilowatt-hours of carbon-free energy during its previous 18-month operation cycle, enough to supply the annual energy needs of 912,000 homes.
The project was accelerated because in November 2020, during the previous Unit 2 outage, TVA discovered degradation of one of the steam generators. Unit 2 generators were planned to be replaced in Fall 2023, but the project was moved up by 18 months as a proactive measure.
“We’ve optimized Watts Bar Unit 2 performance for the next 40 to 60 years,” Rausch said.
TVA vice president, nuclear projects and subsequent license renewal
PEOPLE POWER
MORE THAN
10,000
Employees are the backbone of TVA
MORE THAN
19,000
Retirees have established TVA’s legacy
APPROXIMATELY
18%
Of the workforce are Veterans
58%
Of employees are represented by Unions
17
Unions represent TVA employees and contractors
Carol Barajas, who led the Watts Bar steam generator replacement project, leads a tour of local officials inside the steam generator replacement outage control center.
The project’s safety work included rigorous safety and protocol training related to working in a nuclear facility. The project team also paid close attention to the weather, since the large crane lifting the 67-feet-long by 15-feet-wide steam generators could not be used on highly windy days.
Barajas said two major undertakings that contributed to the success of the project included:
• Building a permanent structure onsite to accommodate the large team, thus making multidisciplinary team meetings and access to the Watts Bar facility easier, and • Using full-scale mockups to practice critical tasks such as cutting concrete around the generators, which helped the team validate assumptions and consider all contingencies prior to work on the actual generators.
At the end of the day, though, the project’s most important element was its people.
“The piece that led to our success was establishing a culture of continuous improvement, one that gave everyone a voice for feedback and that was agile to pivoting and making adjustments as necessary,” said Barajas, who today is vice president of nuclear projects and subsequent license renewal at TVA. “Leaders spent time in the fi eld every day, and we worked to ensure that every person knew they were playing a role in the project’s success.”
Barajas’ positive attitude was one of the reasons she was tapped to lead the project, Rausch said.
“Carol has a great attitude about work and life, and this project required her to lead this large, diverse team in a way that would achieve precise choreography and safety,” Rausch said. “She worked through good days and challenging days in a way that made people want to be part of the project’s success.”
Sue Collins, Executive Vice President and Chief People and Communications Offi cer, said Barajas’ experience is a prime example of TVA’s strategic approach to providing growth opportunities at TVA.
LEADERSHIP
Savoy magazine named
Jeannette Mills, Executive
Vice President and Chief
External Relations Offi cer, to its 2022 Most Infl uential Black Americans in Corporate America list.
Forbes magazine ranked TVA among the Top 15 Best Employers by State for 2022 for the fourth consecutive year.
INTEGRITY
“This year, TVA became the fi rst federal agency in the nation to earn the Compliance Leader
Verifi cation™ designation from Ethisphere®. This designation means that TVA has a best-in-class
Ethics & Compliance program. While we are pleased with this accomplishment, we will continue to evolve our ethical culture and refi ne our processes.”
—David Fountain, TVA Executive Vice President & General Counsel
“Our people are our strength,” Collins said. “Carol grew from this experience, as did everyone who participated on the project. The team was open to different perspectives and worked inclusively toward solutions together. It’s what built TVA in the past and what will build TVA in the future. It’s the TVA way.”
INCLUSION
Talent Dimensions and the Global ERG Network named TVA a 2022 Diversity Impact Award Top 10 Diversity Action Award recipient.
TVA is named No. 4 on the 2022 DiversityInc Top Companies for Utilities list.
Bill Kilbride (left), Chair of the TVA Board of Directors, visits Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2 for an up-close look at the steam generator replacement work.
Environmental justice approach creates a brighter future for our communities
For Janice Horn, there is nothing more important than listening.
Listening to people in neighborhoods across the Tennessee Valley. Listening to community partners. And listening to her teammates.
As senior program manager of Environmental Justice at TVA, Horn is leading our efforts to coordinate how we support and engage with people in disadvantaged communities.
“It is important that we meet our stakeholders where they are — in their communities, and that we listen to what they need,” Horn said. “We don’t go in talking; we go in listening. Then, once we know what they need, we can tell them about programs that might help and how they can access them.”
While working with stakeholders is foundational to TVA’s mission and the public power model, TVA is creating more structure around our environmental justice work to align with presidential executive orders that frame federal agencies’ recent efforts to address disproportionate health, environmental, economic and climate impacts on disadvantaged communities.
During FY 2022, TVA created a multidisciplinary Environmental Justice Core Team that is developing a framework for how to better identify disadvantaged communities and meet their needs and established a broader Environmental Justice Regulatory and Policy Team for enterprise-wide perspective and coordination. “We began by looking at all of the programs we offer in lower-income communities — programs such as Home Uplift, School Uplift and Community Centered Growth — and the picture emerged that we have been doing a lot of this work already,” said Skip Markham, senior manager of Regulatory Affairs at TVA. “So now, we’re being more strategic and more focused in our outreach, and we’re also working within TVA to enhance communication and bring consistency to our efforts.”
Horn said TVA’s Environmental Justice, which sits within TVA’s Sustainability Program, is about creating a brighter future for our neighbors and partners.
“We are working to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to move forward and that no one gets left behind,” she said. “The ultimate goal is to have environmental justice be part of every decision we make across TVA. Everything we do should be through the lens of considering those less fortunate. It’s TVA’s mission. It’s who we are.”
TVA Allen Fossil Plant restoration project team members and community partners help clean up the Tchulahoma Corridor in Memphis.
—Janice Horn, TVA senior program manager of Environmental Justice
TVA is committed to supporting our Veterans
In 2004, Scott Venables fi nished eight years of service in the U.S. Army. While considering what to do next, a friend told him that TVA offered training and preference to Veterans.
That information changed his life.
Venables participated in TVA’s multi-skill training program, then was hired by TVA as a pipe fi tter — a job he held for 16 years. Today, he is the maintenance coordinator at our Gallatin Fossil Plant in Sumner County, Tennessee.
“As an employer who treats Veterans well, TVA is amazing. There is no other way to put it,” Venables said. “My annual salary is much higher than it would be without TVA’s initial training and employment, and that has positively impacted my whole family — my wife, my kids and even my parents, who we take on vacations they might not have gone on otherwise.”
Venables, who served four years as a combat engineer and four years as an Apache helicopter crew chief, is paying it forward as an active member in TVA’s Veterans Employee Resource Group (ERG).
With more than 1,800 Veterans employed at TVA, the group serves as a hub for networking, professional and personal support for fellow Veterans, and a source of camaraderie among those who have served. Its members also support Veterans outside TVA, such as Veterans impacted by extreme weather events or those who are without housing.
At TVA, we actively recruit Veterans, offer paid military leave and guaranteed job retention for active-duty Reservists and members of the National Guard, and support military spouses and families.
“We have high regard for all who protect our country,” said Allen Clare, executive sponsor of the Veterans ERG and vice president of River and Resources Stewardship at TVA. “It’s important for us to give back and fi nd ways to support our Veterans, their families and Veteran-owned businesses in the Tennessee Valley.”
—Allen Clare, TVA executive sponsor of the Veterans ERG and vice president of River and Resources Stewardship
TVA ranked No. 1 for 2022 and a Top 10 designation three years in a row.
2022 Military Friendly® Employer Award
TVA is ranked No. 3.
TVA is ranked No. 8.
VETS Indexes 5-Star Employer
Recognizes veteran employers that distinguish themselves
Boone Dam technical director recognized for engineering leadership
As technical director of the largest dam safety modifi cation in TVA history, Chris Saucier knew the success of our Boone Dam Remediation Project hinged on one thing: teamwork.
Saucier led a cross-functional, 60-member team that designed the dam repair and oversaw its construction to return the dam to service for the people of the Tennessee Valley.
The seven-year, $326 million project included the challenging construction of an underground cutoff wall to eliminate seepage and ensure dam safety.
Thanks to Saucier, his team and many dedicated TVA partners, the site was reopened to the public in May 2022 and the reservoir has returned to normal operations.
Along with the numerous technical advancements achieved during the project, Saucier facilitated new strategies for agency reviews and approvals required for project closure and reservoir operation, further advancing TVA’s implementation of risk-informed decision-making in its Dam Safety program.
Following the fi nal stage of remediation, which demonstrated successful performance during reservoir refi lling, an external independent review board recognized many of the project’s practices as new standards for the industry.
—Chris Saucier, 2022 Recipient, TVA Ike Zeringue Engineering Award
For his efforts, TVA named Saucier this year’s winner of our highest engineering honor — the Ike Zeringue Engineering Award. Additionally, out of 106,000 engineers employed by federal agencies, he was nominated as a Top 10 fi nalist for Federal Engineer of the Year.
“This was a technical project, a one-of-a-kind project,” Saucier said of the project at Boone Dam, located in Kingsport, Tennessee. “It was a huge technical accomplishment.”
Credit for the success of the project, he noted, should go to the talented people who found innovative solutions to complex challenges.
“With a strong team working together, we can do anything,” he said.
At TVA, Saucier has worked as a geotechnical engineer in Dam Safety and in Civil Projects and has been involved with repairs at Blue Ridge Dam in North Georgia as well as Douglas Dam and Cherokee Dam in eastern Tennessee.
A father of fi ve, he is passionate about his family — and also his work. He considers his TVA engineering award to be a team award.
“This is really about the contributions of a whole team,” he said. “It refl ects efforts of a lot of people inside TVA who have worked together successfully. This project is recognized as being special by people all over the world, but most importantly, it was special for those we serve right here in the Tennessee Valley.”
TVA’s Sara Bayles, one of the leaders of the accessible nature outing, cheers for a participant as she holds Sadie, the 3-year-old boa constrictor. Opposite page: TVA’s Damien Simbeck discusses native plants with the group.
Smiling from ear to ear
Accessible nature outing provides a path toward inclusion
On a beautiful morning in June 2022, participants of an accessible nature outing experienced the beauty of the outdoors together at the TVA Native Plant Garden Trail in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Representatives from TVA and two partners, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area, organized the program to give people of varied abilities the opportunity to explore native birds, insects and plants along the paved trail.
Event leaders pointed out and explained sensory aspects of nature so all participants — from children through adults — could enjoy the trail. Some participants said they’d never participated in this type of event because outdoor activities often are geared toward more able-bodied people. “It was something that would make me feel more important to the community,” said Tyler Patterson, a 30-year-old participant in the adaptive program at Muscle Shoals Parks and Recreation.
Finn Bayles, a 12-year-old from Florence, Ala., has a visual impairment. He greatly enjoyed the day. “Most trails aren’t accessible, and I think it’s good for people with special needs to do something fun,” he said.
TVA places emphasis on diversity with inclusion everywhere — from the workplace to recreational trails. The coordinators said the day exceeded their expectations, and they plan to expand the programming.
“I smiled from ear to ear,” said Sara Bayles, TVA Watershed representative. “I loved seeing them learn.”
As the group ventured into the woods, Damien Simbeck from TVA Natural Resources guided the group, sharing his knowledge with the participants. Heads turned, searching for objects to mark off on the bingo boards, and eyes followed the movement of birds overhead.
—Megan Flynn, TVA Vice President, Talent & Culture and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Offi cer
