Fred Eisenhuth, PPL Susquehanna’s Management Council (MC) Representative and MC Sponsor for Operations and Outage Excellence Core Peer Teams has invested more than three years with Utilities Service Alliance (USA). But his service as ‘MC Rep’ with USA – at first blush, three years doesn’t sound like an extensive history – taps into Fred’s 36 years of commercial nuclear power experience and knowledge, nearly four decades of time invested in serving the U.S. nuclear industry and PPL Susquehanna in one capacity or another, beginning in 1978 in the Plant Engineering Group.

At PPL Susquehanna, Fred is a Nuclear Project Manager on the Plant Manager’s staff responsible as the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Administrative Point of Contact and as Dose Assessment Supervisor in the Nuclear Emergency Response Organization (NERO). During his tenure with Team Susquehanna, Fred has served in Station Engineering, Regulatory Compliance (now Regulatory Affairs), Emergency Preparedness, Nuclear Business Improvement, PPL Corporation’s Bell Bend Project and serves as a direct report to PPL Susquehanna’s Plant Manager Jeff Helsel.

Fred graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University at State College and earned a Masters of Business Administration from Bloomsburg University, in Bloomsburg, Pa. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania and California and a member of the American Nuclear Society.

How has Fred’s background in nuclear prepared him to serve the USA Fleet with such confidence?

“These various assignments have given me broad exposure to overall station management, corporate governance, roles and responsibilities of station leaders, performance improvement and operating experience functions, interactions among functional units at the station, and utilization of peer support from other stations,” said Fred. “These are the essence of USA activity and serve me well in working with senior leadership from across the USA Fleet to ensure fulfillment of initiatives and responding to emergent issues at member stations.”

According to Fred, what does he think is the biggest benefit of USA membership for any utility?

“The biggest benefit for PPL Susquehanna and the other USA members is our adoption of a fleet approach to managing our stations. Members are predominately single-station utilities, with two “small-fleet” members – PSEG, which has two stations on one site and Xcel that has two sites,” said Fred. “Acting together, members have expanded opportunities to benchmark, adopt standard operating practices, challenge each other to raise performance levels, develop leaders through rotational assignments, work jointly on improvement initiatives, share knowledge and experiences to address emergent plant issues, and share personnel and supply chain resources to maximize benefits.”

And from his service on the Operations Core Peer Team, Fred believes one of the most impactful programs sponsored by USA Core Peer Team is its “Jump-Up” calls.

“Use of ‘Jump-up’ calls gets direct feedback from fleet peers on the best approaches for handling a new problem that is challenging the station, reviews and critiques operational decision making proposals, considers injury and energy control process events that have occurred at member stations, and provides insights and suggestions regarding nascent accreditation or plant evaluation findings,” said Fred.

“It would be simple to cite the supply chain initiatives that have been providing tangible savings for members throughout the life of the Alliance, but that is too limited a view,” he said. “The real power of the USA is the ability to adopt the best practices and behaviors of the other nuclear fleets, while still retaining benefits provided by having individual operating organizations.”

The USA Fleet is proud of its members and especially proud of those individuals who willingly and voluntarily contribute their extensive commercial nuclear power knowledge and experience for the betterment of the entire organization.

Congratulations and thank you, Fred Eisenhuth, for your contribution to the USA Fleet.

Fred Eisenhuth, USA Management Council Representative, PPL Susquehanna