Why transitioning to renewable energy demands better project controls

Whilst growth in renewables is driving positive changes across our industry and transmission networks, such projects are also incredibly capital intensive. Whether on or offshore wind, solar, biomass, renewable diesel or hydrogen, if we are to succeed at this transition, all capital projects must be managed at the highest efficiency rate possible throughout their full life cycles.

Therefore, in their quest to meet this new demand for maximum project certainty, renewable energy project owners are exploring how technology, specifically in the form of advanced project controls systems, can support owners’ — and their partners’ — energy sustainability efforts without negatively impacting project timelines and budgets.

Why project controls systems for renewables?

Project controls systems, also known simply as project controls, streamline workflows by integrating all necessary project controls and management processes onto a single platform. They help owners gain access to information across project phases and facilitate better monitoring and execution.

Pre-Planning

Project controls connect across disciplines and bring together estimate/bid/tender information with the schedule, whilst also drawing insights from past performance for risk analysis. They also help in enhancing engineering management whereby owners can see design changes in real time and understand their impact on the project schedule and cost to decide whether to retain the design or look for alternatives.

Design and Construction

The cost of key renewable construction materials rose sharply between 2019 and 2020. This highlights the criticality of close monitoring and management of cost and schedule during the design and construction phase. Project controls provide the right execution tools that gather project progress from the field to create performance reporting for owners to access.

Start-up and Operations

Project controls can pool all documentation, inspections and models. This will ensure that owners have a complete historical record of the project that is well-documented and can be visualised through a digital twin. A digital twin provides the owner valuable insights that can be leveraged throughout the lifetime of the asset.

In this context, adopting an integrated platform such as a project controls system can make connected data available in real time, to allow owners to understand past context and current state, and to make more accurate forecasts.

Leveraging project controls systems during renewable pre-planning

The pre-planning phase of a renewable energy construction project encompasses the tasks that are done to support project approval prior to moving onto significant engineering and design work. Some of the major activities undertaken during this stage are the identification of project scope, feasibility/ constructability analysis, and development of a high-level (or conceptual) budget and schedule.

Proactive Risk Mitigation

Project controls systems allow for benchmarking, enabling users to identify known risks from current and past projects to help answer ‘what-if’ scenarios for estimating both real-time and future project impact on schedule and cost. This can provide owners the confidence to proactively develop risk mitigation strategies that may arise either early in the project or during project execution.

Sharpening Scope Through Machine Learning

The advent of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made scope definition through project controls much more effective. AI/ML can reduce the overhead and complexity associated with scope analyses by allowing an inference engine to make project suggestions based on historical data captured from previous projects.

Revision Control Within a Data Repository

All project-related data in project controls is centralized and available for all stakeholders, enabling informed decision-making and better control of revisions and permissions.

Leveraging project controls systems during renewable design and construction

The design and construction phase for renewables involves detailed planning, procurement and project execution. Detailed designs are completed by architects and engineers to ensure the construction approach and process will meet owner objectives, whilst remaining feasible and compliant.

More Realistic Designs, Budgets and Schedules

Project controls systems can aid project stakeholders in enhancing scope, cost and schedule predictions. They can also reduce risk by leveraging historical data available from previous projects, helping to account for risks and unknowns more competently.

Reduced Optimism Bias

Project controls reduce and often eliminate human bias and overly optimistic scenarios and instead accommodate variables based on real facts. The duration of tasks can also be derived or guided by the system by referencing productivity rates and quantities taken from similar historical projects.

Real-Time Project Tracking and Management

Integrating cost, schedule and scope under a single project controls platform can help track project performance in real time. Real-time metrics can be closely monitored and any deviations beyond the acceptable range can be tagged as true risks requiring attention.

Leveraging project controls systems during renewable start-up and operations

The start-up and operations phase for renewable energy construction marks the completion of physical construction and the beginning of an exciting yet often delicate new phase. The activation of a solar power plant, for example, will now begin supplying electricity to the communities it serves. However, that plant will only be deemed truly complete when fully handed over to the owner as operational in the manner predicted.

Centralised Document Sharing for Incident Capture

With centralised sharing, there is better document control and management and therefore, better incident capture through a project controls system. This is because such systems bring all related project documentation into a centralised location, providing one source for sharing, and ensuring that all appropriate stakeholders are accessing the same documents.

Improved Process Visibility for Better Collaboration

The start-up team needs full visibility to construction schedules and task completion status to properly execute all handover and commissioning activities as planned. The project controls system ensures visibility and collaboration across all the parties involved. This then facilitates the creation, assignment and completion of checklists, ensuring the asset is ready for operation.

A Digital Twin Smooths Handover and Operations

A project controls system can enable successful operations for the constructed asset by offering as-built documentation in the form of a digital twin. Easily accessible in the context of a 3D model, inspection forms, certifications, quality documents, warranty documents and more can all be verified and accessed quickly by simply clicking on any component in the model, streamlining decision-making through easy access to the information needed.

With the trend toward larger and more complex renewable energy capital and infrastructure projects, owners have extremely low risk tolerance, as expectations from different stakeholders such as investors, communities and end users remain high. This makes it critical for owners to have the best possible visibility on cost and schedule, undertake proactive risk management, and carry out real-time decision making across the entire project life cycle. Project controls can make all of this a reality, now and in the future.

Image credit: iStock.com/SimonSkafar