Corporate Profit and Nuclear Safety (eBook)

Strategy at Northeast Utilities in the 1990s

Paul W. MacAvoy, Jean W. Rosenthal (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2021
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-22382-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Northeast Utilities Company adopted an ambitious new competitive strategy in the mid-1980s, seeking to become the low-cost supplier in New England electric power markets bracing for deregulation. Given its high-cost nuclear facilities, doing so required a corporate turnaround. For a decade Northeast faced increasing public and employee resistance to cost cutting at its nuclear plants. Though management achieved many of its goals, curtailing outlays on nuclear operations meant high risk that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would close the plants because of frequent, prolonged outages. This is just what happened in 1996. Did management's deliberate cost-containment strategy take nuclear operations to an inevitable regulatory shutdown, and if so, why? Was it the pursuit of executive compensation tied to cost containment that caused undue risk of regulatory shutdown? Paul MacAvoy and Jean Rosenthal describe ten years of corporate performance preceding the shutdown, detailing aggressive executive decisions, mounting regulatory actions in response to increasingly severe operational failures, and--at the same time--overall improvement in corporate earnings, stock prices, and executive pay packages. They relate the complexities of managing declining nuclear plant operations under ever more pressing budgetary targets. Their discussion of the increasing risk of outages raises the issue of the tradeoff of profit and conservative management of hazard operations. All the more timely in light of the massive 2003 East Coast blackout, Corporate Profit and Nuclear Safety represents a powerful and cautionary commentary on industrial practices that goes to the heart of effective corporate governance.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.1.2021
• Zusatzinfo: 4 line illus. 24 tables.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Elektrotechnik / Energietechnik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Schlagworte: Abramson, Barry • Annual report • asset • Atlantic Energy Company • Atomic Energy Commission • Availability • AZP Group • Board of Directors • Book value • Boston Globe • Brown Report • Budget • Busch, Robert • California • Capacity factor • Capital • Capital Cost • capital expenditure • Central Maine Power • Central Vermont Public Service • chairman • Clinton Administration • Cogeneration • Company • Competition • Competitive Strategy • Consolidated Edison • Consultant • Consumers Power (Michigan) • Consumption (Economics) • Coolant • Corporate Responsibility Committee • Corrective and preventive action • Corrosion • Cost Accounting • Cost containment • Cost Cutting • cost reduction • Customer • decomissioning • Department of Energy • Depreciation • Deregulation • dividend • Dominion Resources • Dresden nuclear plant • Duke Power (North Carolina) • Economics • electricity • Electricity Generation • Electricity Market • electric utility • Employment • Energy Information Administration • Energy Policy Act • Energy Resources Group • Engineering • engineering support • Enron Company • Estimates • ethics • Executive compensation • executive director • Expense • extended risk strategy • Filing (metalworking) • Financial Forecast • Financial Performance • Financial result • Finding • Forced outage • forced outages • Fossil Fuels • franchise territory • fuel • Goebel, David • Harshbarger, Scott • Hartford Light Company • hazard theory • hydroelectric systems • implementation • income • Inspection • Institute of Nuclear Power Operations • interest rates • interrogatories • Investment • Investor • Iowa Public Service • Kahn, Alfred • Kilowatt hour • Komanoff, Charles • Legal issues • Long Island Sound • Maintenance Expenses • Maintenance, repair, and operations • Management • Markets • Market Value • Massachusetts • McKinsey &amp • McKinsey & Company • Meltdowns • Mortgage bonds • Mussels • Natural gas • Net income • New Hampshire • Niagara Mohawk • Nuclear Engineering • nuclear fuel • Nuclear power • Nuclear power plant • nuclear reactor • Nuclear Regulatory Commission • Nuclear safety and security • Occupational Safety and Health • operating cost • Operating expense • operator training • ordinary strategy • Pacific Gas and Electric Company • peening event • percentage • Plant operator • Porter's five forces analysis • Pricing • Profit (economics) • profits • Quality assurance • Radiation • Regulatory Agency • Requirement • Restructuring • Retail • Retirement • Safety Culture • saving • Senior Management • Shareholder • Shareholder Value • Share Price • Strategic Management • Strategy • Subsidiary • Subsidy • Supervisor • Supply (economics) • Tax • Technology • Trade-off • Website • Wholesaling • year
• ISBN-10: 0-691-22382-3 / 0691223823
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-22382-7 / 9780691223827