The employees of AEP Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO’s) Pirkey Power Plant at Hallsville, Texas have won AEP’s Horizon Award for leadership commitment and excellence in improving and promoting safety during 2004.
            In 2004, the 105 employees at the lignite-fueled Pirkey plant completed their second consecutive calendar year with out a recordable accident. During the year, plant personnel surpassed 2.9 million work hours without a single lost-time accident – a milestone that goes back to 1992. In March 2005, they passed the 3 million work hours mark.
            “This award goes to the craft employees and first-line supervisors who take true ownership of safety at Pirkey,” said Arne Melson, plant general manager. “We have active plant safety, rescue and emergency response teams, a fire brigade, and our employees are connected to safety first.”
            Employees at the plant have stepped up their safety actions in recent years. During a four-year period from 1991 to 1994, there were 18 reportable accidents. A more recent four-year period yielded only three reportables, and there have been none in the last two years. “We have always looked out for each other, but now it’s more like an accountability group, where safety is the authority,” said Ben Craig, station machinist and a 23-year employee at the plant.
            During 2004, Pirkey implemented a number of employee suggestions on how to improve safety in the workplace, including adding more CPR rescue breather stations, erecting stop signs for ash-hauling trucks in scrubber area; buying safety harnesses for all operators; and installing new hose reels and handrails. All plant employees completed training sessions on fire extinguisher use, spill awareness, chemical safety and fall protection. Sessions were also held on topics such as hearing conservation, respiratory protection and the hazards associated with confined spaces.
            American Electric Power’s Horizon Award was first presented in 1994, making Pirkey the 11^th recipient of the honor and fifth power plant to receive the award.  “One important criteria in determining the winner is outstanding safety performance and accident-free operation, not just comparing other AEP locations, but the performance must be exemplary by industry-wide standards as well,” said Paul Franklin, director, Region 5 Generation in Shreveport.
            Named in honor of Henry W. Pirkey, Jr., SWEPCO president from 1965 to 1972, Pirkey is a single 675-megawatt generating unit operated by SWEPCO that began commercial operation in January 1985.  SWEPCO has nine power plants, and utilizes coal and lignite to meet over 80 percent of its generation needs. The remaining 20 percent comes from natural gas.
SWEPCO serves 443,000 customers across three states, including 167,000 in East Texas.
SWEPCO is an operating unit of American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio. AEP owns more than 36,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. and is the nation’s largest electricity generator. AEP is also one of the largest electric utilities in the country, with more than five million customers linked to its 11-state electricity transmission and distribution grid.
###