Pumped Storage Technical Guidance Initiatives - Summary of Initiative

Summary of Initiative

Immediately following the Taum Sauk breach of the upper reservoir, D2SI initiated a review of the 21 pump storage projects in our dam safety program to assure project safety and determine the need for, and development of, guidelines for the safe operation of pump storage projects.

1. Convened a meeting of 5 major pump storage operators, the USACE, Reclamation, and TVA to discuss areas of safety concerns highlighted by the Taum Sauk dam breach and establish if those concerns needed to be addressed
2. Issued a letter dated January 13, 2006, requiring all pump storage project operators to address 5 safety-related issues:
   • Review effectiveness of instrumentation and monitoring systems
   • Review operating procedures
   • Conduct fault tree analysis
   • Review operator training programs
   • Review EAP
3. Conduct an initial preliminary teleconference with individual project owners to:
   • Confirm that a project and control system review has been conducted in light of the preliminary information available from Taum Sauk breach.
   • Determine if the need for any immediate risk mitigation measures were discovered.
   • Provide assistance to the owners in responding to the January 13, 2006 letter.
4. Conduct in-depth detailed telephone conference with individual project owners to:
   • Get a briefing on the technical details of each pump storage project, including a detailed description of the control systems.
   • Discuss the specific safety-related issues.
   • Status report on the response to the January 13, 2006 letter.
   • Establish a due date for response to the January 13, 2006 letter.
5. Convene a technical workshop for all FERC pump storage operators, USACE, Reclamation, and TVA to develop guidelines for the operation, instrumentation, monitoring, and inspection of pump storage projects, including:
   • Control systems.
   • Instrumentation and monitoring devices
   • Program Logic Control Software (PLC)
   • Computer hardware
   • Human Man Interaction (HMI)
   • Emergency Action Plans
6. Develop any guidelines deemed necessary

Preliminary Schedule

• Initial Preliminary telephone conferences - January-February, 2006
• Detailed telephone conferences - March 2006
• Response to January 13, 2006 letter - April-May, 2006
• Technical Workshop with all FERC pump storage operators, USACE, Reclamation, and TVA - May-June, 2006