NV Energy power plant earns accolades for safety
A national trade group has anointed a Nevada power plant the country's safest fossil fuel-powered generating station.
The Edison Electric Institute, a Washington, D.C. association of shareholder-owned power utilities, said Thursday that NV Energy's Fort Churchill power plant near Yerington hasn't had a lost-time accident in 25 years - since March 30, 1987, when Ronald Reagan was president and The Mirage was an idea on a drawing board.
The institute gave NV Energy a Safety Achievement Award to recognize the milestone. The 30-employee plant has operated nearly 1.8 million hours with no accident-related days away from work.
Electric plants are typically dangerous places to work, given their high-voltage electricity, high temperatures and high-pressure steam to power turbines.
But NV Energy said in a statement that it "embraced" more than 1,500 safety suggestions at Fort Churchill, stemming from audits and recommendations from employees and safety committees.
The 226-megawatt, natural gas-fueled Fort Churchill plant began producing power in 1968, and serves 135,000 Nevada households.
Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @J_Robison1 on Twitter.
