VINDX - A RISK MITIGATION COMPANY
Vindx + Power
​Over the past 15 years Power Plant Assets have been sold to Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) or Non- Utility Generators (NUG’s) at an alarming rate. There are now hundreds of IPP’s and NUG’s in the United States. In most cases IPP’s are owned by Municipalities and Private Equity Firms. The transition from Utility based power production to Private Power production has resulted in an increase in Loss of Availability (LOA) and “forced outages” of power plants, mainly due to a reduction in maintenance and preventive program budgets. The ever increasing severity of Natural Disaster events also plays a roll in the number and duration of LOA/ forced outage occurances. Insurance brokerage firms, reinsurers, and underwriters have seen a significant increase in claims as a result of these LOA and forced outage events.
Significance of Risk Management – VINDX - Risk Based Vulnerability Index
Effective risk management is critical in power plants in order to mitigate potential hazards, prevent accidents, and minimize downtime. Assessing the vulnerability of power plant operations prior to a LOA or forced plant shut down event is the overall objective of the risk-based Vulnerability Index (VINDX) assessment. The VINDX program is an engineering tool which identifies and “risk ranks” potential hazards and critical events specific to a power plants’ maintenance program history, geographic location, design, event history and ensures procedures and equipment are in place to minimize damage losses, maximize business continuity, and increase the safety of plant personnel before and after an LOA/forced plant shut down or a catastrophic or natural disaster event.
​Importance of Power Plant Disaster Mitigation, Maintenance and Inspection Programs
Consistent inspection of critical plant systems and components ensures the safe reliable operation of a power plant. Establishing preventative maintenance programs for critical power plant systems and equipment is the key process by which plant owners and asset managers can identify potential issues prior to a LOA event. Natural disaster mitigation programs are also a part of this critical process. As part of the VINDX risk management process a complete review of current disaster mitigation, plant maintenance and inspection programs will be undertaken.
Program Overview
Vindx is a proprietary process to semi quantitatively “risk rank” power plant vulnerabilities. How we define “RISK” is one of the foundations of the program.
RISK
​Risk is defined as the product of the Probability that an “Event” will occur multiplied by the Consequence of an “event” occurring.
​PROBABILITY
The Probability of an event occurring is a function of several factors including known historical “events”, geographic location, likely hood and type of events, as well as personnel safety. Event damage level is also factored, some events have larger affects than others. For this reason, a weighting factor for each probability is also assigned.
CONSEQUENCE
Consequence is based on many considerations including the financial impact, duration and type of “Event”, and destructive impact of the event.
Three Phased VINDX Approach:
Assessing the vulnerability of power plant facilities and operations prior to a catastrophic or natural disaster event. Allocating financial resources on the largest risk contributors as well as increasing business continuity during and after a disaster event are the overall objectives of the risk-based Vulnerability Index (VINDX) Emergency Preparedness and Response Assessment.
