Review of the Effectiveness of TVA's Transmission Line Maintenance Program

As part of our annual audit plan, we reviewed the inspection and maintenance programs for TVA's transmission lines and structures. Specifically, we identified (1) instances in which transmission lines were not assigned a preventive maintenance inspection interval, (2) improvements that could be made to the manual and system documentation to allow recording of inspection results and additional trending of recurring maintenance issues, and (3) improvements that could be made in scheduling preventive maintenance inspections of tower lighting.TVA management stated they agree with the facts found during the audit and with all of the recommendations. TVA management also provided clarifications related to the OIG's use of the word "assets" versus "locations" when referring to transmission line facilities and how trending of recurring maintenance issues is currently being performed. We revised the report, as necessary, to address these comments.