New York Power Authority Assures Compliance and Continuity, Reduces Costs with Essential Suite™
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Not long ago, New York Power Authority (NYPA) faced multiple challenges in its ability to manage critical compliance issues. First, NYPA staff members were recording environmental compliance data across 17 power generation facilities using a manual compliance tracking system with localized project-specific spreadsheets, task calendars, written logs and other sources. The organization needed a centralized, automated network to streamline compliance information management. Second, several key personnel announced they were seeking departmental transfers or retirement, which would have removed a significant portion of corporate or departmental process memory from NYPA's key compliance positions. Third, managers still needed to do whatever they could to minimize operating costs associated with EH&S activities.
The Challenge
- Conduct compliance management across 17 generation facilities
- Find innovative ways to "do more with less" – optimize scarce resources, especially personnel
The Solution
- Essential Air™
- Essential Waste™
- Essential Water™
- Essential MSDS Manager™
- Essential Chemical Inventory™
- Essential FEMS™
- Essential Compliance Manager™
- Essential Task Manager™
- Essential Incident Master™
The Results
- Cost savings of 1 FTE, reduced overhead and streamlined department
- Reduced risk of non-compliance with improved task management
- Smoothed personnel transitions using system as knowledge/process basis
- Stronger support for strategic initiatives
NYPA found the solution that met all of its requirements with Essential Suite™ software from ESS. The utility selected a broad array of modules including Essential Compliance Manager™, Essential Task Manager™, Essential Air™, Essential Water™, Essential Waste™, Essential FEMS™, Essential Chemical Inventory™, Essential Incident Master™ and Essential MSDS Manager™. This powerful integrated solution set helped NYPA managers create a central repository for all of its regulatory compliance activities.
NYPA officials use Essential Suite to manage AND document more than 700 discrete active compliance-related tasks – a far larger number of tasks than the team initially projected.
"Our objective was to implement a task management system that contained all of NYPA's environmental regulatory-compliance activities," said John Kahabka, supervisor for environmental programs at NYPA. "Implementation of this system would ensure that all regulatory reporting requirements were captured and we would comply with regulatory due dates."
With the help of Essential Suite, NYPA has also been able to go beyond EH&S regulatory compliance by:
1. Serving as institutional memory – By capturing critical EH&S data, the system has reduced the risk of disruption due to personnel changes.
2. Improving the bottom line – NYPA managers have generated cost savings equivalent to one full-time staff position by using the system to reduce man hours required for EH&S compliance activities.
3. Supporting strategic initiatives – Essential Suite has helped NYPA successfully manage other important activities associated with the Governor's executive orders and engineering reviews.
