Cumberland Fossil Plant (CUF) is one of the fossil plants relied upon to assist TVA in meeting its mission. CUF's mission, in support of the overarching TVA mission, is "to provide low cost, reliable generation and ancillary services while keeping our people safe and ensuring compliance with environmental regulations." This review identified operational and cultural strengths and opportunities for improvement at TVA's CUF. We used operational expectations as defined in the business plan and behavioral expectations as defined by TVA values as the criteria for this review. We identified several operational and cultural strengths at CUF. Specifically, we found CUF is currently meeting or exceeding expectations related to key measures in its current business plan. In addition, we noted the Plant Manager is generally seen as open, approachable, and respected, and some managers within midlevel management are viewed as trusted and supportive of their crews. We also found CUF employees exhibit a high degree of enthusiasm and commitment to the plant mission and seem genuinely motivated to make the plant a highly successful operation. Additionally, employees generally view CUF's safety program framework favorably. However, employees also expressed frustrations related to a number of management decisions and actions. These decisions and actions included mixed messaging related to safety, unintended consequences of safety accountability, enforcement of the sick leave policy, use of contractors, perceptions of inadequate staffing, disposal of materials, distrust of some midlevel management, use of an integrated supplier, overreactions by management, perception of conflicting priorities, and Fossil versus Nuclear.
Cumberland City, TN
United States