Final Report: GENCO O&M - Focus Group Discussion | April 22nd, 2015

The discussion aimed to assess the sustainability of the training provided by the program and identify challenges, improvements, and recommendations from the participants based on their post-training work experience at JPGCL. The O&M training was designed to increase the efficiency of Generation Companies (GENCOs) and reinforce improved O&M practices introduced since the inception of government-to-government (G2G) activities. The training participants were given an equal opportunity to state their individual training experience, learnings, and challenges they faced during the completion of their respective assignments. In JPGCL, the program successfully met 17 of the 20 trainees to track the implementation and major accomplishments during the assignment completion phase. The focus group discussion was subjected to timely interventions for continuous improvement while focusing primarily at the 'learning' and 'behavioral change' levels. The program's M&E team followed up on the final version of the assignments, which participants had received at the end of the training course, to successfully track the implementation of the skills learned. At the start of the sessions, the program's team asked the participants to explain their respective assignments, including practical examples of the potential changes occurred as a result of the training course, and to share findings, lessons learned, and accomplished achievements while implementing the lesson learned. The participants mentioned the effective use of their newly acquired skills, including improvements in the efficiency of the heat rate, timely repairing of the steam leakages, and reducing the overall fuel consumption. They also highlighted the challenges they faced during the implementation of their skills and completion of assignments, such as lengthy and outdated procurement procedures, delays in the Plant shutdowns from National Power Control Centre (NPCC) for overhauling, cleaning, and maintenance of the power plant. The participants suggested that more time should be given for the assignments as they have to complete their daily routine tasks as well. They also suggested that the assignments should be given based on case studies during the course of the training, which will help the participants to work on their respective assignments during the training days and discuss any queries with the trainer. Furthermore, they suggested conducting a comparative study between the publicly run power plants and independent power plants (IPPs) to measure the deficiency and identify potential ways to improve the overall performance of the publicly owned power plant. The participants also suggested conducting the similar training course for the senior/top level managers working at the power plant in order to enhance their working knowledge and improve their ability to know the underlying challenges faced by the junior level staff during the implementation of the learned-skills. They also mentioned that the O&M training has improved their knowledge, which they have submitted in the form of latest designs of tariff, but not yet implemented by the higher authorities.