Exelon Electrifies Cost Savings Using 3E
Background
With several million customers and more than $15 billion in annual revenues, Exelon Corporation is a leading electric utility. The company has one of the industry's largest power generation portfolio consisting of natural gas, fossil fuel, hydroelectric and nuclear power generation capabilities. The company offers nationwide service and has a strong presence in the Midwest through ComEd and Mid-Atlantic through Peco Energy. Exelon distributes electricity to approximately five million customers in Illinois and Pennsylvania and gas to approximately 450,000 customers in the Philadelphia area.
Challenges
Exelon operates in a highly regulated industry and must conform to demanding EH&S requirements set forth by federal, state and local agencies. Ken Owens is the senior industrial hygienist for Exelon Energy Delivery (EED) and oversees EH&S compliance at 40 locations.
Exelon has approximately 5,000 MSDSs that employees must have access to regularly. Prior to partnering with 3E, the documents were collected in house, sorted, grouped and sent to an outside vendor for scanning and then uploaded to their mainframe computer.
The process, like many electronic systems at the time, was cumbersome, time-intensive and costly. “It could take a while before the MSDS showed up in the system,” said Owens.
For EED, the most compelling reasons to outsource their MSDS compliance needs to 3E included: significant improvement of their in-house system, the system required a lot of manpower and 3E provided a means to get MSDSs to workers in a more timely manner.
Solution
Instead of waiting for complaints or an OSHA inspection, Exelon took a proactive position to ensure their employees a safe work environment. In 2001, Exelon selected 3E Online - MSDS to streamline the management of EH&S information and compliance requirements at far less cost.
“We found 3E to be the most cost effective solution,” said Owens, noting that Exelon also depends on 3E’s MSDS On Demand “fax on demand” service to keep the company in compliance with OSHA regulations requiring a back-up MSDS access system.
“3E provides 24-7-365 response which is critical to our company since we’re also a 24-hour day company,” he said.
Results
With 3E, Exelon realized extensive cost savings. In fact, Owens estimates 3E enables the utility company to remain in compliance for about a third of the price. “We’ve eliminated our in-house and vendor costs,” he said. “Without the need to upload a tape to the mainframe, we have an annual savings of $80,000.”
3E also assists during on average 15-20 EH&S emergencies annually by providing MSDSs on demand, such as during a fire when 3E faxed an MSDS directly to a HazMat truck on the scene. “3E is there when our field technicians need it,” said Owens. “There’s always a prompt response and the system is always in operation.”
Most of all, 3E adds to providing us peace of mind that we’re providing a safe work environment for our employees.
“I don’t have to put compliance matters on the project board,” said Owens. “It’s a relief – I can forget about it and focus on other EH&S functions.”
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