Follow-up Review of Coal Fire Protection

This review was initiated as a follow-up to Inspection 2010-13530, Review of TVA's Fossil Fire Protection Systems, issued September 30, 2011. Fire protection systems are a combination of mechanical and electrical components and like power generation equipment, need regular attention. The objective of our review was to determine if the fire protection systems were adequately maintained and mitigating actions were taken to minimize the impact of fires at TVA fossil plants.We found TVA's maintenance of fire protection systems was improving; however, there was heightened risk of damaging fires at TVA sites due to (1) restoration times for certain priority systems exceeding TVA targets; (2) delays in addressing fire protection work orders; (3) instances of noncompliance with TVA's inspection, testing, and maintenance procedure; and (4) difficulties in maintaining aging equipment. We noted improvements were made to minimize the impact of fire, such as equipping fire trucks for each plant, replacing the fire brigade room at Kingston, and updating a portion of personal protective equipment for brigade members. However, many issues noted in the original inspection remained. For example, fire brigade members continued to have concerns about fire response preparedness and lessons learned were not shared consistently across the fleet. We also found Fire Protection Self-Assessments presented the condition of TVA's fire protection systems in a more positive manner than other sources might suggest was warranted.We recommended the Senior Vice President, Power Operations, (1) take steps, as appropriate, to restore impaired fire protection systems to service and determine if additional personnel or resources are needed to expedite repairs of fire protection systems in the future; (2) determine the equipment needs of fire brigade members and take steps to provide that equipment; (3) identify additional training needs for fire brigade members and take steps to provide that training; (4) determine whether increased staffing is warranted for fire brigades; (5) create and implement a formal process for capturing and sharing lessons learned from fire events across the fleet; (6) amend the Fire Protection Self-Assessments to include ratings of fire protection system equipment, provide a more objective means for determining whether preventive maintenance was performed, reflect prioritization of impairments and work orders outstanding, and provide a synopsis of additional drivers of fire risk at each site. TVA Management agreed with the findings and recommendations.