DC Remediation Overview

Northwest Region

  • Includes states in the Northwest.
  • Farthest North in Nevada: near Reno (couple of sites).
  • California: up into Central California near Fresno (Westside Whitney).

Southwest Region

  • Small piece of Southern California (Desert Center toward Arizona, along I-ten, toward Ehrenberg).
  • 2.5 gigawatts of production in that corridor.
  • All of Arizona.
  • Farthest away site in Arizona.
  • Six team members housed in BAM (Blythe Arlington McCoy).
  • Blythe, California is the main location.
    • "BAM" is used to refer to the area, despite the ironic and potentially negative connotation of the name in relation to electrical facilities.

Southeast Region

  • Georgia.
  • Team undertaking a $2,000,000 project for taking pictures due to their logistical capabilities.

Central Region

  • Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico.
  • Worked near Denver (Titan site).
  • Roswell, New Mexico: Central team's current location.
    • Three sites: Roswell, Chavez One, Chavez Two.
    • Roswell and Chavez 1 are part of a Hanwha project, involving collection of 15,000 serial numbers.

Team Goals and Funding

  • Goal: Primarily work in the Northwest Region, focusing on regional sites.
  • Silver State is one of the "happiest" sites in the region due to good maintenance.
  • Team focuses on sites with the most loss to improve efficiency and recover resources.
  • Loss recovery is quantifiable and equates to real-time financial gains.
    • Example: Bringing back a string can equate to approximately 123 a day; this adds up when thousands of strings are involved.
  • Team expenses are funded by the projects they undertake.
    • Example: The $1,900,000 serial number project targets a defect with cataloged failures over the past 4-24 months.
  • White Pine site: team was 62.00 in the black after completing the site survey.
    • Found 3,750 total diodes after surveying the site (initial finding of 3,115).
    • The additional diodes found more than covered the expense of the team being there for the month.

Team History and Evolution

  • Team is about two and a half years old, started as a pilot program two years ago in March.
  • Originally called the DC Remediation Team, now being referred to as Solar Harvest.
  • Originated from the idea of utilizing drone data to identify issues in solar fields.
  • Carmine Priore supported the creation of the team to address money being left in the solar field.
  • Started with four people in Blythe and brought back almost $200,000 in revenue in eight weeks.
  • Expanded across three regions due to initial success.

Expectations and Safety

  • New team members will work on a quality project to obtain a yellow belt certification.
  • There is a focus on safety and understanding the NextEra culture, which emphasizes an O&M mentality rather than a high-pressure construction environment.
  • Team's attitude: "I don't get hurt at work."
  • The goal is to provide all necessary resources to prevent injuries through common sense and following procedures.
  • Zero-injury goal; an incident involving a pinched finger that wasn't triaged properly became an OSHA recordable event (emphasizing the importance of immediate field triage).

Direct Current Safety

  • Focus on being safe and understanding NextEra's culture - O&M mentality, not a high-pressure construction environment. Safety first.
  • The goal is to move forward at a pace that is manageable and consistent to achieve safely.

Mental Obedience

  • Some tasks, like serial number collection, require repetition and mental obedience.
  • The goal is consistent daily progress, not rushing through the field.
  • Supervisors will monitor progress and offer support if needed, focusing on removing barriers rather than applying pressure.
  • The belief is that employees will find their own pace and improve naturally without external pressure.
    • Lazy people do not seek to improve processes.

Electrical Training

  • Electrical training will be provided, particularly focusing on the differences between AC and DC electricity.
  • AC (Alternating Current) vs. DC (Direct Current):
    • The biggest difference is frequency; AC has a frequency (60 Hertz), while DC does not.
    • Frequency is what gives electricity its reach.
    • AC: Electrons move back and forth 60 times a second, allowing current flow across a gap.
    • DC: Electrons are either in a flow state or not; won't initiate current flow across a gap without a conductor.

Circulating Currents and Arc Flash

  • Circulating currents and ground faults in the solar field can create heat due to energy conversion in a racetrack for electrons.
  • People often overreact to arcs or arc flashes due to misinformation, thinking they are extremely dangerous.
  • The goal is to educate on what arcs look like and how to react calmly (usually by creating space or backing away) to prevent injuries from overreacting.
  • The focus extends to the concept that it's alright to calmly leave the scene if a piece of equipment is failing, and the company will simply buy a replacement.

Communication is Key

  • Communicate any observations that don't make sense.
  • Never be the only person to know about a problem, always inform a supervisor.
  • Team members should do one near miss unsafe condition report per month using Horizon & 1440 app.
  • New employees may identify unsafe conditions more readily than experienced ones.

Identifying Hazards

  • There are unsafe conditions and near misses in the solar field.
  • Unsafe Condition: Identifying a hazard before engaging with it (e.g., seeing a puddle of water before walking through it).
  • Near Miss: Interacting with an unsafe circumstance unknowingly, but nothing bad happens (e.g., walking through a puddle of water but not slipping).
    • Things like Mylar balloons, trash, pallets, flat tires, washouts, and erosion are examples of unsafe conditions in the solar field.
      *Animals on the road, especially deer in Georgia, are near misses.

Reporting Near Misses

  • Don't only report close calls that happen in the workplace. You can also report a near miss that happens at home.
  • The 1440 submissions are a way for leadership to understand that safety is always top of mind.
  • There's one in there called unsafe act. Someone who is doing something wrong.
  • Unsafe Act:
    • It is defined as someone doing something unsafe (e.g., someone takes their break, takes their hard hat off the truck, and forgets to put it on when he goes back to work ).
      *Safe acts needs to be discussed first with the team lead and is not be like near miss report.

Safety and Caution

  • The goal is to work around very safe people who prioritize going home safely at the end of the day.

Travel, Lodging, and Points

  • Lodging will be arranged for the first rotation.
  • Employees should choose a major hotel brand and stick with it to maximize rewards points.
  • NextEra encourages opening accounts with airlines and hotels to accumulate points for personal use.
  • While traveling, employees are always on the clock. Normal workdays are ten hours, and on the road, it's six tens, totaling sixty hours a week.
  • Working on Sundays and 7 day work weeks is usually restricted to avoid burnout.
  • Commute time is based on the commute to the home site. Any additional travel time beyond that is compensated.
  • Rain days in Georgia are common and are paid at eight hours a day on site doing LMS(Learning Management System).

Travel Schedule

  • Monday the 26th is a holiday and team members are expected to work. It is a paid company holiday.
  • Members will report White Oak, Monday through Friday, figure on being there for the whole pay period.

Time Card

  • Each Friday before payday, take a screenshot of SAP time card so the team lead can look and verify that it has been completed. (snippet tool on pc).
  • Once the timecard is completed, don't make any changes unless instructed to do so, especially after it's been reviewed by a supervisor.

Time Card Codes

  • Unpaid absence is a code 69, pensionable hours, no WBS associated.
  • The screenshot should include the green check mark and be emailed to the supervisor.
  • The time card must add up to 80 or 40 in a week, 80 in a pay.
  • SAP will not add it for you.
  • Have the screenshot so any errors that might need to be fixed are on track.
  • Email over teams is preffered.

Holiday Time

  • The day plus 2 code 02 is for company holiday.
    Company holiday time is billed to a team WBS, a A2600 number, this pays for holidays and sick time.

Time Off & Vacations

  • For time off or vacation, send an Outlook invite to team lead and Ryan as a required participant, only for required participants. The rest of the team has visibility if they are optional participants.
  • The only time that NextEra will not approve a vacation is in the middle of a field rotation.
  • Travel to and from the field is on your own time on your dime.
  • If you need to leave during a rotation they make accomodation for medical purposes.
    I encourage you to use time off often, and try to plan as far ahead as you can.
  • Company holiday is Thanksgiving. You can go ahead and schedule time off now! Get those outlook calendar invites.
  • What a dental appointment you will get parts of your day to go to it.

Call out and Sick day reminder

  • Try to do 30 minute before their start call out on a day so they know what is going on.
  • You can text / email, and they would drop it in outlook.
    *Sick calls are rare, and there are not any repercurssions.

Vehicle and Fleet Access

  • Each team member needs to call every week to put one in, you're expected to submit one a month. Also keep one, they need the SMS safety logs in there too.

Vehicle Maintenance Requirements

  • If something bad happen and you need to take care of fleet vehicle, contact through 1 800-car care.
  • That is the fleet access number, and then you hit option # 1 for broken glass, # 2 everything else. Wait at safest point you can and you are on the clock and getting paid and then calling car care to organize.

Hourly Commitment & Safety

  • If you have to call a supervisor on a saturday put the time on hourly to get paid because the time and company is still valuable.
    *Hourly is typically Monday through Friday and unless there is a bunch of motors to do on site and the site has authorized funds. You will work Monday, and that is a home rotation.

Chrome River, Expenses, Credit-Card and Reimbursements to Credit-Card

  • If you upload on computer, download the chrome app to also start snapping chrome river expenses app that upload to chrome report. Chrome report access online.

Expenses

  • Fuel is on the credit card. Use us bank use bank app for credit card because that the days behind and also link your acct to it and have used to setup. You need access online us bank chrome and that used up the slides and then whatever password. The apps, if you can, take me 10 to 15 minutes and don't do it at the end. Do it right now. Chrome river, CR is a companion up to chrome river, and it's linked chrome river. It is simple. Snaps linked and then all your digital email and phone. No I have so much to do at credit card for out of town expenses report the expense will file separate and real time and the check in and out in a digital base and will get, get it back in three days. I have to see that code and code because you wanna, you know, pay for the bags for the equipment and stuff on file and expenses put that that's gonna put put that in the expenses cord.
    • No fuel and car from all maintenance in allman trucks in the body and that what the insurance in the maintenance, with the tires Valvoline. Jiffy lube, quick lube and you put in with wiper fluid and you get that that is out of pocket using, but that for team
      ** You get new truck, for example, that going in at home place

Expenses report.

  • 75 dollars expenses a day or greater need to put receipts for, bever meals, snack drinks, alcohol (limit two) and alcohol can be taken responsibly..
Tips to report correctly:

*You just have to state if there dinner for multiple days, and is going to be for it.

3 Rules for the reports.

1.Statement amount: match report, and match Chrome River amounts. Attached statement as well and then clear 75 higher, this one clear with and out the triangle and you gonna clear to fix I got something wrong.

  1. if Chrome RIver something needs to be corrected give a Call to main help before fixing issue. Also shoot a test or shoot text and do it together and do it because and that that is for for safety and you be transparent.
    3.For all you will be assigned. for new number number that's it and that is also the reason you is because it is a water and then you know we are good and then we play, that is a warranty and we also have code and this code it is on phone and it is really beneficial and that is if you're out of that, okay the other stuff you got, you know that is it and the and I do for is everything and that and you also get better, okay so a quick with and code