Industrial experience

Introduction

The global energy is fast-changing and most governments and agencies are currently working on the development of sustainable energy sources to offer replacement to the conventional sources. As Australia works on transition mechanisms and methods on how to effectively transit to a low carbon producing and consuming country. The success of these transition efforts depends on the electrification based or derived from renewable energy. However many renewable energy projects have caused social polarization that in one way or another impacts the energy production on power projects in such areas. Australia is recorded to be one of the countries with strong and stable wind patterns in its mountains, plains and offshore areas thus being ideal for large scale harnessing of wind power into electrical power to replace the fossil fuels.

As Wood and Grieve Engineering company, we are committed to ensuring that sustainable energy goals are achieved through working with other engineering companies Such as Stantec Engineering company to establish and construct wind turbines in various Australian locations for electricity production. This report presents a planning and management report for the Black spring Ridge Wind power project.

Project definition, scope and management

Musselroe wind power project is to be located at Cape Portland regions in the northern part of Tasmania Australia. The project is to comprise of wind turbines of specification 56 V90 Vasta Standard wind turbines and the output capacity is projected to be approximately 168 MW. Musselroe wind project will be established to provide over 168 MW to supplement the electricity supply from main grid distribution and to address the challenges of main grid reliability. The project is aimed at better understanding the Australian Economy and commercial viability of renewable wind projects. The wind project is to support the business cases of the present and the future economic developments and help in reducing the rate of greenhouse gas emission. As a company, we are a passionate and dedicated organization that takes pride in environmental sustainability through initiation and commissioning of green projects such as Musselroe wind power project to be installed at the northeastern side of Tasmania Australia.

Electricity generation model

Scope of the project and management

Wood and Grieve is a multi-discipline engineering company with departments and sectors relating to engineering operation. And since no e4ngineering profession or activity that stands alone, Musselroe will be segmented into different phases with various engineering department performing specifically defined tasks towards completion of the project. The first phase shall be the ground site clearing, set of excavation for the foot piles for the turbine base support by civil departments. Then the second phases of the project shall be the installation and erection of turbines. This will be achieved by a joint task force from mechanical and electrical department. Upon completion, the Musselroe is targeted to produce approximately 168 MW electric power to provide Tasmania regions and supplement fossil fuel sources of energy. The implementation of the project is adequately and perfectly scheduled to take a maximum of three months to complete. the project will enhance the understanding of the technical specifications and envelope for the individual plant components of wind farms, exploring options within these parameters to achieve an Ancillary Services capability.

Wind farms have not been traditional providers of regulation and contingency FCAS services in the NEM. Once the technical feasibility has been assessed the project will move to investigate economic and commercial viability. The storage assessment component will look to further improve the connection strength and enhance the plant capabilities of wind farms.

Project progression plan

Project cost estimation by percentage

Work breakdown structure

For smooth flow of the machine development, work breakdown structure is of the essence to help organise the development of crusher into steps and phases. The structure of the work break down structure will be of importance as each and every player shall have their duties outlined in chronological order thus facilitates the design, installation and commissioning of the proposed wind power firm within the stipulated time frame.

By design, the whole process of developing this Musselroe wind plant is stipulated to take the shortest time possible but again the development period must be accommodative to all players involved in its development such as engineers, technicians and technologists to avoid compromising on the operations and power quality and performance value. The whole project is to take three months from design stage to completion of the wind power plant at the Tasmania area.

The first phase of the project shall be the formulation and research on the project idea developed where all engineers concerned shall be given time to have thorough analysis on the workability and machinability of the product before designers commence on designing the machine. After one week of analysis, the project team meet and discuss their research findings then have a common decision by coming up with design parameters

The parameters agreed upon are sent to the executive or senior management for approval before they are sent to the design department for conceptual design and prototype development before actual site erections and installations.

Work breakdown schedule

Project development Gantt chart

The development of the project is categories into subsection and plans into phases and the activities are properly distributed within the stipulated period of three months. As illustrated in the Gantt chart below.

Project integration management plan

The development and installation of wind turbines together with other supporting types of machinery require an integral establishment in phases and stages to avoid installation confusions that might jeopardize the turbine’s performance and efficiency therefore proper planning and management of activities are highly appropriate for project management. The flow of activities to be enhanced through an integrated project management plan. The plan outline most important stages in design development and parameters specifications, dimension generation, design review, amendment and revision on various elements of the project

Structure of project stakeholder

Investment risk management plan

The development of a 168 MW capacity wind power plant shall give way for the company to feely and adequately venture its investments in the renewable industry. However, erecting and setting up wind turbines alone is not enough for the company to fit and blend with the already existing investors in the renewable energy field. Therefore for the company to blend with the renewable energy market, there is need to have an explicit market investment risk management plan in place that will act a guide throughout the investment period in the newly ventured industry.

Some of the potential risks in investing in the development of Renewable wind energy plant might involve the availability of the relevant technology and machinery to fabricate the item in bulk to meet market demand, the cost of erecting and installing a single turbine and related equipment and acceptability of the product by the intended customers among other investment risks. After thorough scrutiny of these potential investment risks, the management plan is established ready in place to tackle any of the projected risks in the event of their occurrence.

In every investment, risk syndrome cannot be completely be factored out, but needs appropriate consideration and set plans for the recovery from the risks that would arise in the dealing with the item. Risk is a thing that business encounter every day, what makes the difference is how well the organization is prepared to handle whatever risk comes on the way. The project of the wind power plant is no exception to risks thus this early management plans to handle the risk associated with its fabrication is factored in as early as the design conception stage.

Risk evaluation for the project

Relevant standards and laws

The operation within the Australian renewable energy sector is guided and regulated by the Australian Commission of renewable energy that set and supervise all activities revolving around renewable energy sources. The wind is freely abundant and plenty within Australian raised planes and capes, however, if the tapping of these resources is not monitored might result in other environmental challenges. Northern Australia is the most attractive site for wind renewable energy for investment. Therefore the government has set out the standard and efficient and streamlined regulatory environment, availing adequate investment information and environment and climate protection codes.

The commissions of renewable energy have set of installation guidance and material specifications for wind blade sizes and standards, installation depth, a position with settlements, etc. all these to ensure that the public is safe from hazards that might be posed by the fall of these turbines. Some of the guidelines and rules are proactive planning wind energy development, within the context of wind energy production; the government defines the considerable legal weight and results in identifying areas that are suitable for wind turbines.

National wind coordinating committee rules and guidelines that were established in 1994 as a collaboration of the different representatives of wind equipment developers and supplier, electric utilities, green power agents, federal agencies, commissions, state utilities and environmental conservations agencies. The set of rules gives guidance to how wind turbines and wind power plant should be done in general.

Key performance indicators

Generally, a key performance index (KPIs) is a project measuring tool that is given a metric measure of how well an organization perform any given operation in a tactical or strategic activity that is critical and of high value to the organization’s goals and missions. The success of any organization in present or future depends on how well it structures and plan the basic operations and how individuals within the organization carry out the specific assigned task. Using key performance indicators (KPIs) allows stakeholders to measure the progress towards a stated goal. Many industries use KPIs, like the nuclear industry, the financial sector and health care. During the O&M phase of a wind farm (WF), KPIs can influence the decision-making process by providing the stakeholders with valuable information assessing the status of the operational asset. Indeed, they reflect changes in the O&M strategy.

For the Musselroe wind power project, the company will use the advanced wind energy system operation and maintenance expertise to evaluate the potential performance of the project over a projected period. Based on the goals and mission of the project, the implementation of the project will involve the KPIs in five main steps. The development of these steps or phases were arrived at after thorough scrutiny and brainstorming by key stakeholders to come up with the most viable project strategy that would give a positive performance indicator for the wind project. The involved stakeholders involved farm operators, maintenance service provider, insurance provider, grid and utility operators, insurance provider, the government and the end-user.

One of the most important operator’s interests is the performance of the asset. The word performance is very broad and can embrace many aspects of the WF operation, from annual energy production (AEP) to generated revenue. We would like to read here WF performance as its efficiency. Indicators should then answer the following question: is the WF producing as much energy as it could? The most commonly used d indicators are presented subsequently

Projects KPIs index for Wind Power Project

Basis of design

The design of the whole project will be based on the constraints outlined by the accreditation s board for engineers and technicians to ensure that the design complies with the minimum requirement for a major qualifying project. Team of design engineers together with other involved expertise to come up with the most sustainable design of the plant. The typical arrangement of wind turbines and mills to be used should be of the least weight to necessitate turbine rotation even on low wind conditions. The basis of the design incorporated all aspects of engineering designs such as realistic constraints that include most of the following considerations: economic; environmental; sustainability; manufacturability; ethical; health and safety; social; and political.”1 In addition to these constraints, this project considered the Australian Association of Plant Engineers (ASPE) Commentary on “Engineering Design Documentation and drawings

Program evaluation and review technique

Within the company, it’s a norm to have a well-established evaluation index system for development projects. Therefore, Musselroe is not an exception, the team consolidated the best available techniques with the most suitable evaluation techniques for the project. The first step in the proposed method is to determine the indexes for the sustainable assessment of the proposed wind project. Company’s designers and engineers proposed a 16 sub-criteria in a three-layer structure that is subjected to expert validation. The validation process with the hierarchical structure rationality of the selection criteria is validated as proposed.

Conclusion

The problem of sustainable energy systems has become a global challenge due to rapid developments in the world’s economy. The increased urbanization and industrializations have hiked the demand for energy thus propelling the increased generation of electricity to run the heavy and sophisticated machines and to run the operations of enterprises within urban centres. These negatively reflect the environmental sustainability through increased emission of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere thus resulting in increased depletion of the ozone layer.

Wood and Grieve Engineering Company is a dedicated organization that offers quality and the best engineering solutions to the immediate problems facing society. It is established that the company has managed to be the top priority in northern Australia since it employs effective project management strategies that facilitate perfect project delivery.

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