The following guidelines represent recommendations and
are nonbinding on the public utility involved in a construction program as
defined in
66 Pa.C.S. §
515 (relating
to construction cost of electric generating units). The following guidelines
are not intended to include all actions which a prudent management could or
should take but are intended to provide guidance to a utility engaged in a
major construction program:
(1) The
extent of a construction management or monitoring program by a utility should
be commensurate with the financial risks of the project.
(2) The utility should have a management or
monitoring program designed to recognize problems, react to them in a timely
fashion and mitigate the effect of those problems.
(3) The utility management or monitoring
program should provide information on the status of expenditures and cash flow
requirements to upper level management.
(4) The utility management or monitoring
program should provide meaningful reports on construction progress and
completion to upper level management.
(5) The utility should have a management
program which coordinates the diverse elements involved in large construction
projects, including but not limited to: scheduling, licensing, design,
engineering, construction, procurement, quality control, quality assurance,
vendors, consultants, systems turnover and startup testing.
(6) The utility management program should
ensure that utility staff has the training and experience, which is necessary
to successfully oversee the particular construction project. The utility should
also review the training and certification of contractor personnel.
(7) In the case of a nuclear unit, the
utility should ensure that construction management treats Nuclear Regulatory
Commission regulations as minimum requirements and not as ultimate
goals.
(8) The utility should
ensure that construction is adhering to quality assurance/quality control
standards generally accepted by the respective construction industry.
(9) The utility construction management
program should be able to evaluate the effectiveness of its own organization
and should require periodic internal or external audits of the project.
Evaluations of the utility construction management program should be forwarded
directly to upper level utility management.
(10) The utility construction management
program should define its own organizational and personnel responsibilities as
well as have review and approval authority over the organizational and
personnel responsibilities of other groups involved in the project.
(11) The utility construction management
program should ensure that its own personnel are knowledgeable about the
organizational and personnel responsibilities of the diverse groups-for
example, architect/engineer, constructor, subcontractor, Nuclear Steam Supply
System (NSSS) vendor and the like-involved in the project.
(12) If possible, vendors and contractors
should be selected by competitive bidding. A utility should maintain
documentation on the rationale used in the selection of the vendors and
contractors.
(13) The construction
management program should ensure that construction personnel are aware that
cost and schedule considerations are not more important than safety and the
application of sound engineering judgment.
