The United States Approach to PLiM for LTO

The organizational structure for PLiM in the United States of America varies widely from plant to plant. For example, some plants may have a dedicated PLiM organization that coordinates the PLiM activities and provides the PLiM study results to the appropriate plant organizations (e.g. maintenance, engineering and operations) for implementation. Other plants may not have a dedicated PLiM organization, but rely on various organizations (e.g. design engineering, system engineering and maintenance) to conduct needed PLiM studies for LTO on a case by case (e.g. by component groups, such as piping, cables and transformers) or by individual components (turbine generator or steam generator). The organizational structure for preparing an LRA varies from utility to utility, but a typical structure is based on creating a project team to address each major discipline of the needed studies. The team members may be from utility organizations, contracted consultants who specialize in preparing LRAs, or a combination of the two groups, which is most common. A typical organizational structure is shown. The team typically consists of 10 to 20 full time members, with several other part time support members from various expert organizations (both utility and contracted consultants) needed to perform the engineering, ageing management and environmental studies and to prepare the supporting documentation for the LRA project