Improving generator availability at a western United States electric power plant

On several occasions, as an operations research analyst, I have been asked to work on project teams formed to address some particular problem, even though no specific need for operations research abilities had been identified at the outset. In this case, the Public Service Company of Colorado asked me to work on a project team formed to improve the availability of a coal-fired steam generator at an electric power plant. Plant personnel had been trying unsuccessfully for several years to reduce system downtime. I recognized that the plant could make immediate improvements by reducing the duration of breakdowns rather than their frequency. The company initially estimated the payoff for these improvements at $544,000 annually, but has since revised it upward, and it may be as high as $2 million annually. The insights that produced these process improvements were possible because of the hands-on approach to problem solving taught at Colorado School of Mines.