Mar 8, 2017 - âI wanted to be an architect since I was five years old,â said the 43-year-old Fritz, ... Her main job
OUR PEOPLE: KAREN FRITZ As a young girl, Karen Fritz had her sights firmly set on a career in architecture. But now, instead of designing buildings, she’s working to keep goals and schedules aligned as an executive in the $12.8-billion refurbishment of OPG’s Darlington Nuclear Generating Station (GS), Canada’s largest clean energy project. So, how’d that happen? “I wanted to be an architect since I was five years old,” said the 43-year-old Fritz, who holds a degree in Architectural Science from Ryerson University. “But I was much better in the construction and project management side of things than design.” After graduating, she worked to foster that strength, starting out with a small construction management company before moving on to the world of nuclear power. Since 1999, Fritz has worked at Bruce Nuclear GS in Kincardine, near where she grew up, Pickering Nuclear GS, and now Darlington Nuclear GS. She’s been heavily involved in the Darlington Refurbishment since 2014 and has served as Director Unit Outage for the past two years. She and her team of 80 are now managing the refurbishment schedule integration and work management process for the station’s Unit 2 reactor, the first of four units undergoing refurbishment at the plant over the next 10 years.
EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT KAREN FRITZ Position: Director Unit Outage Work location: Darlington Nuclear Generating Station Years of service: 18 Favourite spot to visit in Ontario: Kincardine. “I surf on Lake Huron, my favourite Great Lake. It’s one of the most gorgeous places in Ontario.” Favourite movie: Sixteen Candles Favourite weekend activity: “Just drinking coffee and sitting down. I have a four-year-old son so I’m focused on being at home with him.”
She’s the first to admit there are some pretty big differences between architecture, commercial construction management and the refurbishment of a nuclear power plant. “Construction management for a commercial building is a bit different than this,” Fritz said. “Here, you’re trying to plan and maintain the health of a power plant and ensure the future reliable life of the station, while working within an operating power plant. I’ve worked outages my whole career, that’s what I love – working on a shut down reactor and now refurbishment.” Darlington Nuclear undergoes about one planned maintenance outage a year, with the outage typically lasting about 100 days. With the refurbishment, each unit will be offline for more than 1,000 days, 10 times as long as a normal outage. “It’s much more involved, much more technical. This is not maintenance; this project includes hundreds of engineered modifications involving brand new equipment designs and first-of-a-kind evolutions. We’re rebuilding a reactor,” Fritz said of the mega project. It has been, by far, her biggest challenge. Dealing with the sheer volume of work and people involved with the refurbishment has been demanding. Fritz’s team is responsible for integrating and overseeing about 120 different schedules related to the refurbishment. Her main job is to make sure everyone is aligned to specific milestones, deliverables and goals. But it’s a challenge she is relishing. Describing it as her best job yet, Fritz says the refurbishment has forced everybody to think outside the box.
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“People kind of forget a project is a problem to solve. I’m determined and love to solve problems,” she said.
