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CHOOSE EXPERTS, FIND PARTNERS
BOOSTING INNOVATION& THE ENERGY TRANSITION
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THIS IS YOUR MAGAZINE. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LET US KNOW HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT IT. Suggestions at [email protected]
Responsible Editor: Bernard Gilliot
Editor in Chief: Catherine Cammaer
Portrait Pictures: David Plas, Tractebel Engineering
Project Pictures: Flickr, JF Desroubaix, Francisco Delgado, Tractebel Engineering
Copywriting: Suzy Davidson
Layout: psp communications
Thanks to all employees who collaborated: Gilles Bourgain, Samy Benoudiz, Bernard Dereeper, Pierre
Cnapelinckx, Jacobo Segurado, Deborah Van den Brande, Antoine Rubbers, Alexander Stryk, Alex Loosen, Elielson
Seabra, Jean-Baptiste Débonnaire, Sébastien Rodesch, Yasmine Merad, Alexandre Zivkovic, Vera Germann, Robert
Berdal, Alberto Verney, Valéry Lacroix, Marielle Demilie, Bruno Linhares, Marlène le Bourhis, Vertika Saxena, Josiane
Borrozée, Sabine Wulf, Isabelle André, Alexander Lesser, Anne-Marie Hueso
FACE TO FACE
SAMY BENOUDIZ 7
CUTTING EDGE
TOP NUCLEAR & SGR EXPERTISEFOR KOEBERG - SOUTH AFRICA 9
CORE
WORLD’S LARGEST SOLAR THERMAL POWER PROJECT 11
URBAN MACRO-DRAINAGE GOOD WORKS IN BRAZIL 12
DOUBLE ECO-EFFORT FOR ECO-CITY ALZETTE-BELVAL 14
ZOOM
STREAMLINING OPERATIONAL TOOLS & METHODS 18
BRIEFLY
FILDA FAIR LUANDA 20
HAVE A LOOK & SMILE 20
SHARED SOLAR SUCCESS IN JORDAN 21
WINNING INNOVATION - LATAM 22
THE ARTISTIC SIDE OF ENGINEERING 23
“OUTSTANDING” TECHNICAL PAPER WINS ASME AWARD 23
GEORGIA ON OUR MINDS! 23
TE CHALLENGE 2015 24
EDITO 3
BOOSTING INNOVATION& THE ENERGY TRANSITION 4
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CONTENTS
CROSSWAYS IS THE INTERNAL MAGAZINE OF TRACTEBEL ENGINEERING AND ITS REGIONAL COMPANIES. IT IS PUBLISHED 3 TIMES A YEAR.
Dear reader, Dear colleague,
As we approach the last quarter of 2015, change, forward thinking and innovation, as the binding themes for the company this year, ring truer than ever. Together we have taken several big steps in recent months. On the one hand we are part of major Group change: the name change to ENGIE and a new organisational structure within the Enterprise Project.
On the home front we have shared: the ongoing integration of Lahmeyer into the group; our com-mitment as a company to Stand-out for Excellence; a 20/20 Vision initiative to kick-start global thinking on where we see ourselves in the next 5 years and beyond. And not least, the first activities of a new Energy Transition Division directed to facilitate and help boost innovation in our group and help us take the lead as the Energy Transition Architects.
Saying it has been a busy time is an understatement! I thank everyone who has contributed in big and small ways to keeping us on track throughout. Whether in winning or managing ground-break-ing projects like those covered in this Crossways issue, or in driving and supporting initiatives; every one of you plays an important part in our future.
This is a company filled with remarkable people in every field; people whose minds never stop working, questioning, innovating, researching, answering and resolving. It’s for this reason that I am excited to be moving towards the future with you all. If activating necessary change in our world is, as a notable genius once said, a process of thinking; I am in excellent company.
Enjoy reading.
Daniel DevelayChief Executive Officer
“The world as we have created
it is a process of our thinking.
It cannot be changed
without changing our
thinking.” Albert Einstein
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The Energy Transition - the global focus on achieving a holistic and responsible energy model in answer to major energy challenges; climate change, providing energy for all and assuring worldwide security of supply.
WHAT IS THE ENERGY TRANSITION? Gilles Bourgain: The Energy Transition is the transi-tion from today’s energy situation – centralised, fossil-dependent power generation in an energy-stressed world in which 20% of people still have no access to electricity to a desirable future based on efficient consumption and carbon-free generation offering supply security and affordable energy for all. It’s about moving from A: today towards B: an ideal future, considered possible due to C: 3 changes in the energy world:
• Decentralisation of power generation made possible by a steady increase in Renewable Energy innovations and lowering costs;
• Digitalisation enabling measurement, collection and treat-ment of massive amounts of energy data at low cost, used to optimise consumption and the design and oper-ation of the whole energy chain.
• Energy Efficiency of increasingly high levels allowed by new technologies and thinking.
WHY A NEW DIVISION?Two years ago Georges Cornet, then CEO, asked the question – what would be our company’s role in a world that will become increasingly decen-tralised? With COMEX and selected experts, a fully decentralised scenario was designed to assess what
Tractebel Engineering could offer in such a world. The an-swer was clear; expertise and project management remain key, but evolution in our business; moving from mostly the design of complex centralised assets to include integration of decentralised connected systems would be needed to stay relevant, long-term, in our sector. To boost the chang-es needed to prepare us, and so our clients, for this future, as new CEO, early this year, Daniel Develay launched the Energy Transition Division – with 2 ambitions:
1. To boost innovation as a lever for evolution in both traditional and new businesses to increase productivity, business opportunity, and the perceived quality of our ser-vices for our clients.
2. To be a leading Engineering-Consulting company on the Energy Transition. We want:
• To be the Architect of the Energy Transition for all stakeholders of the energy value chain (local authori-ties, equipment manufacturers, operators, developers, architects…), and in particular, the ENGIE Group as the energy transition is core to its strategy. This means tak-ing the lead in understanding and sharing with clients the transition trends, challenges, opportunities, economics and likely timelines and the actions required at a conti-nent, country, region, city and even building level…
• To boost and help commercialise new distributed busi-nesses and services in our own company.
"Our geographical proximity allows us to understand each local specificity. Our global and multi-disciplinary technical expertise gives us a clear vision on the latest global trends to help our clients to shape their world." Gilles Bourgain
Innovation and Energy Transition are hot topics in Tractebel Engineering. Gilles Bourgain, as new Energy Transition Department Director, explains what’s behind it all; the high-level goals and actions of the new division; as well as some likely impacts on future business…
SPOTLIGHT
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BOOSTING INNOVATION& THE ENERGY TRANSITION
• From ideas to solutions: innovation workflow pro-cesses and committees are in place to help take ideas forward from concept, through development and GO/NO GO phases, to start-up. Boosting this aspect ties in with the new ENGIE Innovation & New Business entity providing venture capital and incubation of new start-ups in the Group, e.g. Power Corner (see pg 6). We’re also aligning ourselves with external systems supporting start-ups; for example La Fabrique des Mobilités – a multi-actor EU mobility innovation accelerator.
• Valorise and apply new services and solutions: we’re already seeking leads and responding to new types of calls for proposals requiring cross-expertise from different entities. With Europe our main “labora-tory” of energy transition changes we’re creating an Energy Transition Marketing book, with our best inter-national project references, to share regionally as a first step to pushing new solutions to markets around the world.
In September an Energy Transition Intranet linked to My Portal has been launched listing Ambassadors, product lines and with more information on activities and initiatives. Have a question or an idea of value on innovation and energy transition? Contact your entity Energy Transition Ambassador or send us your idea via our new Intranet “Idea Box” – it’s there for you!
GROUP RESPONSIBILITY: ENGIE has made energy transition a focus; committing to actively promote energy for all while respecting the environment. It’s our ambition and duty to accompany them in this. While ENGIE still counts on us to engineer big assets, it’s also asking us to help engineer its future business. Involved at the heart of the new ENGIE Enterprise Project we’ve spent 6 months helping ENGIE’s top management to design a vision based on territory specificities working directly with the project managers of the 14 different geographical BUs in the new Group organisation.
INTERNAL FOCUS: Meanwhile in Tractebel Engineering, a programme of activities is also underway, with 4 objec-tives key to meeting our own long-term ambitions:
• Elaboration of our energy transition vision. −− 10 Energy Transition Ambassadors from our differ-ent department and corporate functions, have been appointed by COMEX to help build a transversal vision and boost innovation in our entities.−− 11 products were identified as already helping to grow our business in a decentralised direction. Business pro-ject managers are developing a first focus on key mar-kets, products, coordination strategies and partners to target for 6 of these: Energy Transition Architect, Mobil-ity, Energy Efficiency, District Heating & Cooling, Digital Solutions & Services and Rural Electrification & Micro Grids.
• Encourage and assist a mind shift based on shared experience and idea generation: several schemes are being launched: Communities of Experts/Practices via Yammer connecting people in similar areas of expertise to solve issues, share new approaches, support busi-ness development and reinforce offers. In September, more initiatives are launching: monthly “Energy Transi-tion Rendez-Vous” zooming in on ideas; an intranet dedicated to energy transition with an “Idea Box” for people to put forward ideas… And these are just the start.
FIRST ACTIVITIES IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION DEPARTMENT
SPOTLIGHT
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"As a new department we have started putting some means and tools at your disposal that allow you to be an actor of innovation and change in your own area of expertise. This is just beginning. Bring us your best ideas and we will do our best to help you boost them – it’s what we are here to do!" Gilles Bourgain
HOW DOES THE ENERGY TRANSITION TOUCH OUR BUSINESS & WAY OF WORKING?Not starting from nothing; we already have strong busi-ness platforms that lend themselves to transitional growth. When we say we want to be Energy Transition Architects it is a global vision; a cohabitation of traditional businesses with new businesses. But assumptions that apply to keeping our lead in traditional businesses apply even more, when integrating decentralised businesses:
INNOVATION IS KEY: Spontaneous or brain-stormed, sparked by partner or project feedback, market or cus-tomer demand, trends, conferences or literature; new ideas are the key to our future competitiveness in every sphere of activity.
MORE AGILITY: In response to changing markets we will be required to be more agile and reactive. It’s already clear that decentralised markets expect project offers to be made fast (30 minutes is our current record!) as opposed to the weeks currently allowed for large central-ised project proposals.
EMBRACING DIGITAL: More powerful tools and stand-ardised approaches will increase project efficiency while innovative tools differentiate our offers. Capitalising on capabilities to manage vast amounts of data at low cost mean “smart” digital services and expertise packaged in high added value software used internally or sold as prod-ucts will be a new string to our bow.
GREATER CONNECTIVITY: Development of IT tools and networks will allow us to be more intelligently con-nected; within the company, with partners and our mar-kets, enabling faster, international access to, sharing of and reaction to critical knowledge.
TIGHTER TIES BETWEEN ENERGY & INFRASTRUC-TURE: As infrastructure design impacts energy con-sumption, production, delivery, storage and exchange, energy and infrastructure are increasingly linked.
SHIFTS IN ACTIVITY FOCUS: Technical expertise and project management will drive increasingly flexible, effi-
cient, centralised assets but focus will also be on activities boosting decentralised businesses and the design and integration of decentralised systems. Increased operation services and consultancy at local level, for new types of clients is another reality.
EVOLVING EXPERTISE AND PARTNERSHIPS: With increased connection to an eco-system of partners; more economists, financiers, policy makers, architects, soft-ware experts… will be integrated in engineering teams.
SO HOW DOES IT TOUCH YOU?Traditional business or new business; whatever your area of expertise, no one is excluded from taking part in the change. While there will be debate around the exact nature of the energy transition for a while to come; ques-tions each one of us should already be asking are; how can I use my knowledge to optimise solutions in my domain, to push new ideas, to show clients how they can go further, to be an ambassador of our changing future? In the end, as always, it is an individual decision – to stay connected, stay open to the external environment and opportunities it presents, and stay innovative to be part of, and ahead of, an inevitable, but exciting transition to the future.
More info: Gilles Bourgain, Energy Transition Director – [email protected]
SPOTLIGHT
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Tractebel Engineering can already proudly point to a new business incubation in partnership with INEO and the ENGIE Innovation & New Business entity. Led by Frédéric Madry within P&G, THE POWER CORNER is a new concept for Rural Electrification in Africa. It is a modular, primarily PV powered generation unit, packaged, shipped and assembled in a standard shipping container, destined to meet basic electricity needs of villages up to 150 people (per unit) in remote, off-grid areas. A first demonstrator is being built in Tanzania. From Africa - to any remote corner in the world, THE POWER CORNER is a good idea with potential to go far!
POWER CORNER A new product for Rural Electrification & Micro Grids
It’s almost a year since you took over from Daniel Develay; what first attracted you to TEF?Samy Benoudiz: Tractebel Engineering (France)/ Coyne et Bellier, world-famous for its dams, is seen as a top engineering company in France – respected for its high technical level, references and way of searching out new markets. Having worked in Degrémont (SUEZ Environne-ment) for some years, I know the Group - so knew TEF, with Tractebel Engineering, was evolving and company growth and evolution is something I’ve been involved in often in my career. Lastly, a strong local and international base is a combination I value.
You have a different background to TEF’s previous “hydro-technical” CEOs?I didn’t join TEF to personally bring more technical exper-tise. I bring knowledge of handling very high level clients as well as industrial, governmental and public institutions and these are important to TEF’s future. I understand local and international markets, contracts and finance so can react to and discuss what is sold and being execut-ed, even if I’m not following the technical work on a daily basis. What do you see as the most important function of CEO?Above all, it’s to be a facilitator. Today it’s hard to win new clients or projects so you do your best to facilitate the whole environment to make it happen; enabling peo-ple to work better together, improving CV’s, methodolo-gies and strategies to approach clients, as well as secure
contracts from a smart financial and image point of view. A big part is also facilitating a strong cooperation across the whole of our group which is important to us competing globally.
Did you have a first goal as the new CEO?Even CEOs have set objectives. Daniel Develay was very clear when leaving as to what was work-ing and what needed attention. TEF has grown fast in recent years and needs strong folluw-up to stay on top of that. We have a lot of group and external joint ventures (JV) around the world and taking good care of JV contractual, financial and follow-up is also essential. An internal request was for more training and tools to boost expertise – keeping TEF’s technical edge is impor-tant to people here so a number of workshops have taken place on that. One of my contributions, based on previous experience, has been to set up a network of key account managers for our major repeat clients e.g. VNF, EDF, VINCI… to better consolidate our knowledge of and response to their needs.
Mastered in Agronomy and Sanitary Engineering he’s another kind of engineer; but with a good head for business and ability to cultivate balanced growth – we think he’s put roots down in the right place as CEO for Tractebel Engineering France (TEF).
"It’s about putting the right people to work in the right place - and the right place is where the client wants them to be..."
YOU!
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FACE TO FACESAMY BENOUDIZ
What have been your impressions of the people in TEF?Excellent! We have over 20 nationalities working here so it’s far more multi-cultural than people think. TEF at-tracts top talent and people expect and take responsibility very quickly. They are excited by what they do and gifted, but modest at the same time; taking time to explain or ask an opinion, valuing feedback and discussion. As someone who wants to know the full story before I visit a client or enter a discussion, I appreciate their openness and input. I am gifted by an excellent team.
What do you bring them as CEO?I am very determined and focussed; driven on one hand by responsibility for people and clients who expect you to help make things happen; on the other, I enjoy the en-trepreneurial aspects and ever-changing challenges of business. With plenty to keep me busy here I am happy!
Does this sense of focus carry to other aspects of your life?At home I admit I am a constant gardener, a last remnant of being an agronomist. My passion is trees - Japanese maples with red leaves very typical of Japanese gardens. It’s not easy transforming a French garden to a Japa-nese one - but it is contained, while vibrant, and suits my sense of balance.
Taking growth as your theme, is this your ambition for TEF?I’d like to see TEF keep crossing new frontiers, physically and technically using cross-pollination of team expertise to grow into different markets. In Hydropower we’re moving more into East Europe and Central Asia
countries and can take P&G along. Locally, our spectrum of services and entities have grown; opening opportuni-ties to join in some of the large and interesting projects happening in France. On all fronts the commercial chal-lenge is not to just go for lean “one product” projects, but to work more with strategic partners on larger complex schemes - e.g. nuclear waste storage (CIGEO), Grand Paris, some of our dam projects…. Clients today want technical expertise but also ability to progress projects in a broad context facilitating the success of whole schemes.
Does sharing the hydro market with Lahmeyer im-pact this business growth?At first glance you’d think so. But in reality together we have more CVs, more contacts, more areas of specialisa-tion e.g. Lahmeyer brings strong irrigation skills, making us more competitive in a very challenging market. But it’ll need good coordination and successes to prove it to the market.
What message would you like to share with all of Tractebel Engineering?To become more global we need to cooperate more. Together we can make it. Our synergies need to be more professional, pragmatic and borderless. In the end our clients expect us to set up the best team to ensure a pro-ject’s success. It’s about putting the right people to work in the right place - and the right place is where the client wants them to be….
Thank you Samy Benoudiz – it’s good to have you on the Tractebel Engineering team!
"I enjoy the entrepreneurial aspects and ever-changing challenges of business."
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FACE TO FACE
Welcome to Koeberg Koeberg Nuclear Power Station (KNPS) 30km northwest of Cape Town, with a beautiful view of Table Mountain, is the only commercial nuclear power plant on the African continent. Owned and operated by Eskom South Africa’s pow-er utility, it has two 900 MW Pressurised Water Reactors. Since the units were commissioned in 1984 and 1985, KNPS has been operated safely and recently successfully passed a peer review by the World Association of Nu-clear Operators (WANO). Since 2009, KNPS has been looking at the proactive replacement of the steam generators in both primary circuit units – technical advances being the driver to avoid common component ageing issues and allow a significant thermal power uprate. With the project rebooted in 2014 – it is all go!
Unmatched SGR (Steam Generator Replacement) experience, commercial contact and differentiating “Flexible In-Core Fuel Management” knowhow have earned Tractebel Engineering Nuclear a milestone Owner’s Engineer contract with Eskom Holdings (South Africa) for 6 Steam Generator Replacements in Koeberg Nuclear Power Station.
A MAJOR UNDERTAKINGJacobo Segurado: The project involves the design, manufacture and delivery of 6 tailor-made steam generators, removal of the old and installation and com-missioning of the new ones. Plus all engineering and safety analyses needed to prepare the Safety Case for submission to the South African National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) for licence purposes. With 3 steam generators to replace in each unit - a once in a lifetime event for a nuclear plant - even for Koeberg’s experienced operators this is a first and huge undertaking so our support is valued both for the expertise and reactive assistance we bring.
NO TIME TO WASTEReactivity is key as time is the main challenge. The mission, first considered in 2010, was due to complete in 2017. The current contract, with AREVA as sup-plier, started in October 2014 and has an end target of August 2018 – moving the end date by just one year! As steam generators normally take 4 years to manufacture, a huge effort is going into fast-tracking the manufacture of the 6 new ones across 4 countries; France, Japan, China and Sweden, along with review of the many associated studies. With delivery of the new steam generators anticipated in December 2017, the extraction and replace-
AN AFRICAN DREAM FOR NUCLEARWinning this exceptional contract was the result of a sustained demon-stration of expertise and commercial effort by many people in Tractebel Engineering Nuclear. From the first 2010 project team – Jan Groeninckx, Project Manager and Cédric Martinot, Technical Coordinator to Hubert Druenne and Christophe Schneidesch, world class leading experts in Core & Fuel Design, Claudio Schinazi for being outstandingly recognised by the customer, to the steadfast client support and sound business develop-ment by Jacobo Segurado and Pierre Cnapelinckx .
For Eskom, working so closely with an Owner’s Engineer like Tractebel Engineering is a big step for an otherwise very independent nuclear operator. But it seems the high level of knowledge and support we offer, as well the credence our name lends to studies and document reviews in the eyes of South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator is gaining ground. As South Africa is the continent’s first commercial nuclear country and has expressed interest in a new nuclear build programme, this project is an important opportunity to bring value, share expertise and be present in a vibrant market.Bernard Dereeper – Marketing & Sales Director Tractebel Engineering Nuclear
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TOP NUCLEAR & SGR EXPERTISEFOR KOEBERG - SOUTH AFRICA
CUTTING EDGE
Steam generator shells arriving in Shanghai
Jacobo Segurado & Ben Blom (Commercial Director NECSA)
ment of the old ones will require seamless coordination and planning by all parties. Meeting the deadline will be a challenge but is feasible - largely because the operation can take place via the material hatches on both units so no major works on the containment structures are needed.
CHANGE OF SCOPE & JOINT EFFORT SAVES TIMEAntoine Rubbers: Also taken into consideration is, while the new steam generators have been sized slightly larger than the originals to allow a Thermal Power Uprate, the uprate activity will only take place after the commissioning and not at the same time as per the earlier scope. But as with all NPP modi-fications where even the smallest design change requires a whole new batch of safety studies – the new components require full set of safety studies re-lated to fuel, thermal hydraulic, system and mechanical aspects. While Jacobo is on site assisting the Eskom team with the day-to-day project management
and study reviews, we also have a dedicated and full back-office team in Brussels under Deborah Van den Brande supporting the project locally and internationally.
BACK-OFFICE ACTIONDeborah Van den Brande: We have had short missions to site this year – and it was nice to finally meet people in Koeberg that we’ve been in long-distance contact with for so long. For now one part of the job involves manag-ing component quality inspections in France, Japan Steel Works (JSW), and Sweden’s Sandvik. We are also sending an engineer to China for 3 months to do inspections – this being the first time a Chinese component for a NPP primary circuit will be installed outside of China. But the key current activity is verifying AREVA studies. These are divided in 3 lots: Fabrication, Installa-tion and Safety studies which all need to be submitted to the National Nuclear Regulator for approval well ahead of the implementation. It’s a lot to cover in a relatively short time and we are supporting Eskom in order to ensure every aspect or question is well resolved, as quickly as possible. But our reviews are also based on our Belgian NPP experience and in some cases we perform independent calculations to confirm the analytics produced by AREVA. A critical aspect is having knowledge of the technology and design of the plant – and in this case Koeberg Power Station is of a very similar design to Tihange 2 and Doel 3 in Belgium giving us a solid basis to work from.
LOOKING FORWARD Jacobo Segurado: After many years preparation, it seems strange to say the project is in its early stages but the replacement of steam generators is not a “quick fix” project and there is a way to go. By 2018 we expect a lot of change, including a grown, local Tractebel Engineering team on the ground and several more of our Nuclear experts on site assisting with final activities. Everyone is pushing hard and if we can help Eskom achieve the same level of success achieved in Belgium SGR’s over the last 20 years, we’ll have helped to achieve a most important nuclear goal – Africa’s first steam generator replacement, and first major nuclear project since KNPS commissioning!
A SOLE SUPPLIER OWNER’S ENGINEER CONTRACT: 5-YEARS IN THE MAKING
Tractebel Engineering Nuclear’s first involvement in the Koeberg SGR pro-ject was in 2010, just as we completed the last steam generator replace-ment for all 7 NPPs in Belgium; making us the world’s most experienced engineering company in this field. This was an important factor in our introduction and first workings with the Koeberg team on the preparation of the technical specification documentation and call for tender for the replacement. As it happened however, the mission was paused as Eskom needed time to confirm contract compliancy and budget before going ahead. By 2013 this had been achieved and the call for tender went out again. In August 2014, we again assisted with bid evaluations and techni-cal/commercial negotiations leading to Eskom’s decision to sign AREVA in October 2014. The project was back on track – but we still had to re-confirm our own contract. Activities in the interim years played a big part in making this happen…
BELGIAN EXPERTISE A KEY DIFFERENTIATOR!In 2010, we’d already discussed two ways to optimise Koeberg Power Plant operations which had sparked interest. One was a Thermal Power Uprate – as achieved on 5 of the Belgian NPPs by increasing the size and heat exchange capacity of the new generators resulting in, on average, 10% more output. The other was Flexible In-Core Fuel Management – a concept particular to Belgium and the Group, developed based on a deep understanding of the safety case and fuel management aspects of NPP.
Flexible In-Core Fuel Management: essentially instead of separate stud-ies, each a complicated and costly effort required for each fuel vendor, Tractebel Engineering Nuclear has devised one study/calculation method-ology that could cover more than one fuel supplier, allowing unusual flex-ibility in fuel supplier selection and cost effective NPP fuel management, while retaining nuclear production plan flexibilities.
Offering Eskom a significant advantage, between 2010 and 2013, our early proposition became a training contract, with Eskom and the South African Nuclear Authority invited to Belgium to learn more on the subject. By 2013, revised technical specifications required that bidders take into consideration both a future Thermal Power Uprate and the Belgian Flex-ible In-Core Fuel Management system. As Eskom policy allows an identi-fied, unquestionably critical, sole supplier to be contracted directly, our Owner’s Engineer contract was re-signed and sealed in March 2015!
Jacobo Segurado – Project Manager Koeberg SGR, Managing Director Tractebel Engineering South Africa
More info: Bernard Dereeper – Marketing & Sales Director Tractebel Engineering Nuclear – [email protected] Pierre Cnapelinckx – Deputy Marketing & Sales Director Tractebel Engineering Nuclear – [email protected] Jacobo Segurado – Project Manager Koeberg SGR, Managing Director Tractebel Engineering South Africa – [email protected] Deborah Van den Brande – Deputy Project Manager Koeberg SGR & Project Manager Nuclear Projects-Plants Operational Support – [email protected] Antoine Rubbers – Business Manager Nuclear Projects – [email protected]
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CUTTING EDGE
Ronald Thankenwajo, Kurt Jurgens, Jacobo Segurado, Marvin Eagles
Morocco pursues the ambitious target to establish a solar power capacity of 2,000 MW by 2020 that will represent 14 % of the country’s total electrical power. This will contribute to the reduction of the reliance on conventional energy, minimise the emissions of Greenhouse Gases, and have a positive impact on climate change. Morocco is currently 95 % dependent on oil.
In 2009, King Mohammed VI presented the solar energy project in Ouarzazate, the first one to be implemented under the Moroccan Solar Plan. The construction project will save an estimated value of 1 million Ton Oil Equivalent per year, and avoid the emission of 3.7 million tons of CO2.
Noor IThe first solar power plant Noor I is currently under con-struction in Ouarzazate complex. The 160 MW parabolic trough plant is under commissioning, the full operation is set for this year. With an annual energy generation of more than 500 GWh, it will cover the energy con-sumption of 1 million private households.
Noor II and Noor III In early 2013, the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) appointed Lahmeyer International as technical advisor for the tendering of the following two plants within the complex: Noor II, a 150-200 MW parabolic trough plant and Noor III, a 100-150 MW solar tower plant.
The Lahmeyer team manages and supervises the en-tire technical process, prepares the tender documents, evaluates the tenders received in a technical regard, and assists in contract negotiations and contract award.
The power plants will comprise some of the largest CSP facilities in the world when completed. Coupled with the thermal energy storage, the solar energy will be fed into the Moroccan grid.
Noor II and III power stations will have a storage capac-ity of 5 and 7 hours of production when operating at full capacity. This improves the flexibility of the plant output into the energy mix, especially during peak periods.
Moreover, the Noor II and III power stations will use dry cooling systems that should generate annual water con-sumption savings of around 3.6 million m³.
Lahmeyer International has concluded the technical evaluation of the proposals, assessed the tenderers for suitability with regard to the technical requirements, and assisted MASEN until contract award. In addition, the Lahmeyer experts investigated combined solutions for the offered two different solar power plants.
More info: Alexander Stryk – [email protected] Alex Loosen – [email protected]
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WORLD’S LARGEST SOLAR THERMAL POWER PROJECT
CORE
AN UPLIFTING PROJECT Elielson Seabra: The Tucunduba project, is named after the tidal Tucunduba River and river basin which ac-counts for 10% of the city footprint in Belém, the capital city of Pará State in northern Brazil. The focus is on the macro-drainage, sanitation and urban upliftment of a swampy area in the north of the city, in which some of Belém’s poorest citizens still live in unhealthy slum condi-tions along the river banks, to:
•−Improve the living and health conditions of people living in the Tucunduba area,
•−Reduce environmental impact on the waterway (an open sewer for the slum dwellings along its banks) before it enters the Guamá River leading into the ocean.
PAST SUCCESS INSPIRES THE NEW SCHEMEFrom 1997–2005, LEME Engenharia was involved with SEDOP on an even larger Una Basin Macro-Drainage project, accounting for 60% of the Belém city footprint and from which over 600.000 people benefited. Given its success, in 2014, SEDOP initiated this new project similarly geared to transforming the Tucunduba landscape and its citizen s’ lives for the better, involving 3 key tasks:
1. TUCUNDUBA RIVER CHANNELLINGThe dredging, draining, cleaning and concrete channel-ling of 2.20 km of the Tucunduba River and river basin, with paved roadways allowing mobility along its banks. As the Tucunduba terrain is very flat, careful calculation of gradient is important to assure drainage and water flow
with no stagnation, while accommodating all potential tidal level changes.
2. DOUBLING OF PERIMETRAL AVENUEThe extension and asphalting of a 4.66 km stretch of the local perimeter road “Perimetral Avenue”– effectively doubling the existing section of paved roadway, with kerbs, gutters, sidewalks, drainage systems and signaling assuring safer mobility for its users.
3. HOUSING CONSTRUCTION & EXTENSION OF WATER SERVICESThe construction of 340 new houses along the Perime-tral Avenue to re-house families displaced by the Tucun-duba channelling, with a new water treatment station and enlarged water supply system to provide drinking water and sanitation for the new housing complex.
TECHNICAL EXPERTISE SEALS THE DEAL When SEDOP initiated the public tender for the Tucundu-ba contract it was one of the biggest projects in the State for some years. At least 8 companies entered - but, in the end, only LEME Engenharia and 2 others met the strict technical qualifications. With 70% of points on the techni-cal offer and 30% on the financial offer, we were proud to be rated first in both. In April 2014, we received the contract for the management and urban civil works su-pervision for the macro drainage of the Tucunduba Basin, duplication and paving of Perimetral Avenue and con-struction of 340 new housing units. Begun in May 2014
works, completion is expected in October 2015 (18 months).
EXPERT TEAMS ADDRESSING ALL NEEDS A project of this scale, working on a river and in an urban environment, comes with many shareholders, social im-pacts, as well as technical and project management chal-lenges. In Belém, we have dedicated at least 39 people; engineers and civil technicians to the project.
•−3 site supervision teams: one each for the waterway, road and new housing projects.
•−A design review expert: to assist contractors with any design adjustments that arise as the project progresses – reactivity being critical to assuring any issues are quickly resolved without disrupting the overall schedule and vision.
•−A Project Management Office team: taking care of all aspects of planning, financial and project reporting, status monitoring etc.
•−A Social Works team: assisting with the complex pro-cess involved in rehousing families in the area.
A NEW RECORD - 800 kV
UHVDC FOR BRAZIL T&D!
With special help from LEME Engenharia Infrastructure, macro drainage and urban upliftment by SEDOP - Pará State Secretariat for Urban Development and Public Works is improving living and environmental conditions in Belém, Brazil. Elielson Seabra, Infrastructure Product Line Director shares the positive story…
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URBAN MACRO-DRAINAGEGOOD WORKS IN BRAZIL
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ADDING VALUE ON ALL FRONTSFor SEDOP, working with LEME Engenharia brings value across the board and important continuity on the many project interfaces. Civil works are hugely impacted by the expropriation process; the registration of families and proper-ties ahead of demolition, making close collaboration between the Site Supervision and Social Works teams essential. As locals have seen the improved living conditions of people relocated in the Una project, most are happy to move - but critical to this is guaranteeing the timely and quality con-struction of the new housing and sanitation systems to meet all stakeholders’ expectations. Progress on the housing and road works is also closely inter-related. Providing all competences and managing the project phases with one coordinated team has been an added advantage in terms of timing and costs.
PMI EXPERTISE KEEPS ORDER Tucunduba, as a State project, is also subject to strict administration rules and building regulations. Strong project management is a priority in terms of planning, monitoring and reporting, assuring that contractors respect deadlines and all payment/spending is justified and accounted for. That our PMO team uses PMI (Project Management Institute) software programmes and systems assuring top project management standards is valued on a mis-sion where all aspects are open to stakeholder scrutiny and regular financial auditing. Meanwhile the physical transformations speak for themselves...
LEME RE-OPENS BELÉM OFFICE!A project bringing about such positive change is highly motivating for any team – but the Tucunduba mission is extra special for another reason. After 30 years, LEME Engenharia’s regional office in Belém was forced to close in 2010 due to the financial crisis and lack of major projects. With Tucunduba the Belém office has re-opened, rehiring many former people, adding to the enthusiasm and positivity of the local team involved.
MORE GOOD NEWS…In March 2015, SEDOP administrators signed a framework contract with LEME Engenharia for the Management and Supervision of all major civil works in Pará State - all large projects involving sanitation works, building works, new clinics, new sports centres, mobility etc., for one of the biggest states in Brazil! It is a huge compliment on our past and present work with more op-portunity for good works in the future!
CONTINUITY COUNTSOn Tucunduba LEME Engenharia brings important return of experi-ence from the 1997–2005 Una Macro-Drainage project in Belém which achieved: 22.9 km new and upgraded channels • 154 km of pluvial drainage networks • 290 km of sewerage networks • 152 km of drink-ing water piping networks • 200 km of urban roadways • Construction of two dams with gates for flood containment • 41 concrete bridges, eight metal footbridges and 35 concrete footbridges • Resettlement of 4,824 families
More info: Elielson Percope Seabra – Product Line Director Infrastructure, LEME Engenharia – [email protected]
"The Tucunduba programme has been a special op-portunity for LEME Engenharia’s Infrastructure team to once again work in a regional stronghold with a valued customer. It means a great deal to our com-pany and engineers in Pará State who have shown exceptional enthusiasm and commitment to ensuring the project’s quality and success."
Elielson Seabra – Infrastructure General Manager, LEME Engenharia
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and a University for 7,000 students, the joint projects make for a good Eco-Agglomeration Trans Frontier effort.
PROJECT DRIVERSLeading the French development, a public institution Etablissement Public d’Aménagement Alzette-Belval (EPA-Alzette-Belval) was established in 2012. It is respon-sible for implementing all operations to effect the eco- and economic development of the OIN territory with the goal to house 20,000 new residents and create 8,000 local jobs, via:
•−A new eco-city development on 50 hectares of indus-trial wasteland between existing towns Audun-le-Tiche and Belval; namely sites 1. Micheville and 2. Portes de Belval.
•−Energy-efficient construction of:−− 119.000 m2 new housing−− 145.000 m2 business facilities, shops −− 13.000 m2 schools and sports centres
•−An eco-friendly, multi-modal mobility network servicing/connecting the entire 5.285 ha OIN territory and facili-tating commuter access to Belval and the City of Lux-embourg.
AN OPERATION OF NATIONAL INTEREST (OIN) That this project deals with an entire territory, not just an “eco-district” within a city, makes it a special “eco-city” project. But it is also one of national interest for France - for 2 good reasons:
1. MORE HOUSING = MORE EMPLOYMENT: The community of small towns in the Pays Haut Val d’Alzette is in North-East France, across the Luxembourg border from the town of Belval. Once a steel and mining hub, the area has suffered closure of all of its mines in the last 30 years. In contrast, Luxembourg is economically strong and offers high employment for les frontaliers living on its borders. At least 75% of 25,000 people now living in the territory work in Luxembourg; but there is room for even more if new housing and better infrastructure makes it possible.
2. CHOSEN FOR ECO-CITY DEVELOPMENT: In 2009, when the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing launched a programme to en-courage eco-city projects in France, the social upliftment potential justified Alzette-Belval as one of 19 eco-city pro-jects chosen. Key to this, 3 km across the border, urban-renewal of the old Belval steelworks district was already underway. Gearing to offer 20, 000 job opportunities and attract new residents; with a new rail station on the connecting line to Luxembourg City, shopping centres
FIRST STEPS – SMART ENGINEERINGWith many new concepts to consider, EPA first called for engineering deployment and feasibility studies to outline the possible approaches and technologies ahead of any binding investments. The engineering tasks were divided into 4 different lots; we won 2 of them!
Lot 1: Feasibility study for the construction of “islands” of Positive Energy Buildings contributing to a global neutral energy balance of the zone.Lot 2: Heating network.Lot 3: Mobility, eco-mobility and innovative public transport.Lot 4: Smart City Services (smart grid and smart metering).
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DOUBLE ECO-EFFORT FORECO-CITY ALZETTE-BELVAL
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Proving a growing “City of Tomorrow” reputation are two separate contracts for the Eco-City Alzette-Belval in North-East France. Sebastien Rodesch and Yasmine Merad, Tractebel Engineering (France) have been moving on the Mobility studies, while in SSI, Jean-Baptiste Débonnaire and team handled the Positive Energy Building (BEPOS) studies for this ground-changing project…
Eco-City Alzette-Belval
Jean-Baptiste Débonnaire: Energy efficient buildings are at the heart of eco-city develop-ment. But there are 3 levels of energy-efficient buildings:
•−REGULATION – conforming to acceptable low energy consumption standards
•−PASSIVE – achieving ultra-low energy con-sumption
•−ENERGY POSITIVE (BEPOS) – a building or group of buildings that produce more ener-gy than they consume globally – the ambi-tious objective is 0 kWh in primary energy.
BEPOS PROVIDING A BETTER GLOBAL ECO-BALANCEIn an ideal “eco-city” all buildings would be BEPOS. In reality it is not viable from a total cost point of view for many, but not all, future home owners or investors. The idea for the Alzette-Belval eco-city development, starting with Micheville zone, is to have clusters of BEPOS mixed with others; with BEPOS “islands” sharing energy resources and a mix of energy saving programmes achieving zero-energy goals, contributing to a the overall energy efficiency of the whole eco-city development. LOT 1 – MORE THAN A PASSIVE EFFORTOur mission has been to study how to achieve the BEPOS clusters in terms of the mass plan, energy network opportunities, renewable energy potential, localised building material opportunities and innovative solutions currently being utilised in eco-city developments – and of course costs. Beginning with a blank page and a ground up approach meant considering many different aspects:
BENCHMARKING - A full review of what is being done in other eco-city devel-opments.
RENEWABLE ENERGY POTENTIAL - BEPOS make maximum use of renew-able energies so we look at our options in the area and rate the potential at BEPOS and eco-city levels: Biomass using wood, agricultural waste, household waste is useful at territorial and city level; Geothermal: surface or deep; Wind is interesting - particularly small turbines on buildings, homes and streets; Solar: Photovoltaic (PV) is a given.
LOT 1 - ENERGY POSITIVE BUILDING (BEPOS) - SSI
THE BLOCK PLAN - Working with urbanists/architects we looked at building placements and orientation and impacts on their energy use. Using modelling, we consider aspects like:
•−Bioclimatic studies – wind behaviour and its impact on comfort, heating and use of small wind turbines. Sun and cast shadow impacts on heating, other buildings, surface geothermal and PV use.
•−Building width – to benefit from natural ventilation and light, windows need to be placed in opposing facades and building widths cannot exceed 20 m or a “dead” space is created in the centre.
•−Energy network plan – when creating dedicated energy sources, e.g. bio-mass or PV, a network vision as to how and where energy generated will be consumed is needed. On site there will also be a data centre – as these pro-duce enormous heat the idea is to also use that recuperated energy to feed the neighbourhood (Lot 2.). What becomes important is the building density to limit the energy network size and the mix of building energy demands to ensure efficient use of the energy created. In this case energy networks will also be interconnected with mobility (Lot 3.) – using smart grid technologies (Lot 4.) allowing excess energy generated to be used to produce hydrogen which can be stored for use in public and private transport vehicles.
• Building schedule - Building construction will be in 3 phases over almost 20 years, but the energy network is a phase 1 achievement, so it’s also critical to plan for the right buildings to be built first to utilise the network from the start.
Jean-Baptiste Débonnaire
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MATERIALS & GREY ENERGY - In targeting a zero-energy balance, besides actual energy consumption, in BEPOS the energy consumed in material crea-tion is also taken into account. This is grey energy. In comparing sustainable building material options, e.g. for isolation there’s wood, recycled fabrics, cork, hemp… we rate: efficacy, innovation, sustainability, locality (dynamising employment in the area), and cost – but also grey energy. If fabricating the ma-terial, be it for walling, roofing, flooring, plumbing, uses high energy or creates high levels of CO2, it’s not for BEPOS.
DECENTRALISED ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION - Against the same criteria; particularly taking into account compatibility with the eco-city vision, methods of decentralised electricity, heat and mixed production are also compared. For ex-ample, the different options available in terms of small wind turbine technologies – turbine “trees” on the streets for example, PV roofing and hydrogen batteries able to produce both heat and energy.
OTHER ENERGY SAVING OPTIONS – Investigations cover all possible means and innovative ideas for energy savings in individual homes and in urban contexts. We look at solutions for water, for waste, for everything from cogeneration using vegetal oil to supermarkets that no longer stock packaged products – customers bring in containers and fill them in store. It’s a new way of thinking that’s possible because we’re creating a whole system from scratch.
MISSION COMPLETING – FOR NOW!Starting in February 2014, the studies, reports, consultation with developers, homeowners and manufacturers have taken almost 1½ years. Our recommen-dations and feasibility studies have been since been submitted for the EPA to decide the way to go and begin the search for investors. The team will complete its mission with the drafting and integration of the technical requirements and specifications to enable developers to take the various assignments forward. Between 2016 when the first building is achieved to +- 2030 when the full pro-ject is expected to complete a lot can still happen – but it has certainly been an interesting start!
"The interest of this project is not only working on BEPOS building on a huge scale which is ambitious and unusual, but we get to draw the big picture. With BEPOS, more than any other building, the sustainability aspects drive the vision, so as engineers we are in effect the “designers” of the whole. Knowing that one day an exemplary eco-city will exist on those empty fields and we were at the start of it is inspiring and motivating." Jean-Baptiste Débonnaire
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Yasmine Merad: Extending beyond the new eco-city, the major mobility task in the Alzette-Belval project is to facilitate the re-dynamisation of the whole terri-tory by; connecting existing towns to the new “eco-city” so that everyone can benefit from
the new facilities; and meeting the needs of current and future daily commuters to Luxembourg with multi-modal, eco-friendly transport options and routes.
MAPPING THE TERRITORYFirst steps required diagnosis of the existing (infrastruc-ture, governance, transport costs) and future mobility use, considering people’s means and motive for daily move-ments, mornings, evenings, weekends etc. At the same time we were assessing all possible “innovative” mobility solutions associated with eco-city environments, ranging from circulating automatic vehicles to an overhead cable car connection to Belval - innovation being important to the EPA in terms of its vision of Alzette-Belval as a state-of-the-art, pilot territory for new eco-city and mobility technologies.
Sebastien Rodesch: Findings showed a territory hugely reliant on private cars, with little organised public trans-port between towns and extreme North–South rush-hour pressure supercharging the road and rail systems there are, particularly the motorway to Luxembourg. Key ques-tions were then; how to add even more commuters to the Luxembourg route without overwhelming the system; how best to access the Belval rail connection and univer-sity; and how to enhance territorial circulation – all while reducing the need for private vehicles.
RESPONSIBLE & RESPONSIVE MOBILITYYasmine Merad: Given that heavy traffic flows are not constant and that many people remaining in the terri-tory by day are dispersed over a large rural/peri-urban area, it was perhaps disappointing, but clear that many of the “innovative” options first considered wouldn’t be pragmatic or cost-effective. Based on our first study, we relooked the situation, focussing less on extraordinary mobility ideas and more on solutions responding to the actual territory needs and realities and stakeholder ex-pectations. Using the eco- development of Micheville as a springboard, with arbitration by EPA and consultation with other “Lot” engineers and urbanists, we arrived at a deeper vision of an integrated, organised multimodal mobility system comprising 10 solutions:
• A high-quality Rapid Bus Service using hybrid/electric vehicles - tying in with the eco-city smart grid and energy networks - linking 3 main centres Villerupt, Micheville and Audun-le-Tiche to Luxembourg City via a dedicated highway bypass route. • Drawn down from the commuter service; better local bus services also using hybrid/electric vehicles. • Transport on demand, for pensioners or “stranded” people in outlying areas needing to enter the city. • In Micheville - a high-level Park and Ride centre, envisaged as a mobility hub, with frequent bus (local and to Luxembourg) and bus to train (Belval) con-nections, bicycle hire or storage facilities for students (Belval is just 3 km away), lockers, electric-car charging facilities, as well as practical amenities; banks, restau-rants, laundrettes, shopping, postal services etc. • Dedicated bicycle highways crossing the territory and connecting to the Micheville Park & Ride centre; pro-moting this mode of transport as a credible alternative to most private car trips. • A supported “House of Bikes” services centre for short and long term hiring, repairs, etc. • A system facilitating electric-shared-cars and long distance car hire. • A digitalised multi-modal mobility platform (app for smart phones, iPad etc.).
• A mobility shop allowing physical interface between suppliers and transport users. • A central “Neighbourhood Concierge” service cen-tre assisting with parcel, dry-cleaning, etc. delivery and collection for commuters leaving and returning to Micheville, notably through the high development of e-commerce.
ALWAYS MOVING - FORWARDSR: With EPA approval given in September 2014, the last phase of our contract is to launch the approach to realising these solutions; dimensioning and defining as accurately as possible how the complete mobility system will work. It covers the fine details; where bus stops will be placed, exact bus routes, the cycle highway routes, operation and governance of the different programmes, schedules etc. down to the number of electric-cars that need to be available for hire! In effect it is a feasibil-ity study combining the technical and spatial solutions, planning and cost of investment. On the projects that go forward, all that remains for us now is managing the long list of specifications for contractors and develop-ers to follow to see the entire system put into action. The changes won’t be overnight, but when everything is in place, Alzette-Belval could be one of the best places to live – or at least move around in - in France!
More information: Jean-Baptiste Débonnaire – Project Manager Lot 1 Alzette-Belval, SSI – [email protected] Sebastien Rodesch – Project Manager Lot 3 Alzette-Belval, Tractebel Engineering France – [email protected] Yasmine Merad – Studies Engineer Mobility, Tractebel Engineering France – [email protected]
LOT 3 – MOBILITY – TRACTEBEL ENGINEERING (FRANCE) "That our client embraces innovative ideas is an unusual freedom – but we still have to answer the real needs. The best concepts being those that deliver eco-friendly mobility that is useful." Yasmine Merad
"Working on Alzette-Belval positions us as experts in this field. Plus we get to know a client that still has a long way to go to achieve the full vision. There is nothing that excludes us from continuing on this project – but on the basis of what has already been achieved, it should meet expectations in every way." Sebastien Rodesch
Yasmine Merad, Sebastien Rodesch
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A CRITICAL RE-LOOK AT TOOLS & METHODS Alexandre Zivkovic: Back in 2010/2011 when all entities came together under the Tractebel Engineering banner, specific “Tools & Methods” were also consolidated. The priority then was a common set of Corporate Tools to synchronise processes in Finance, HR, Corporate Governance, Communication etc. It wasn’t long ago, but today it feels like we’ve always had tools like PROMISE and TE Portal etc. While there’s room for improvement and greater connectivity, in general, use of these tools by the group and their quality is good.
In contrast, the gaps we see now are in Operational Tools & Methods which haven’t evolved to the same extent. This has led to different entities modifying existing or creating new tools to meet their needs – achieving the same goals but in different ways, at different cost and levels of effort. With a view to achieve Excellence and be more professionally organised, the new priority is to es-tablish a shared vision on 3 core Operational Tools & Methods:
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: The systematic capture, sharing and best use of multi-disciplined knowledge to meet organisational objectives; improving group performance, competitive advantage, innovation and organisational learning. It concerns management of explicit knowledge – papers documented, stored and accessed as needed via tools and tacit knowledge – individually held, experience-based knowledge, shared through personal interaction, organised methods such as Communities of Experts and/or return of experience (REX) reporting via tools. Knowledge Management has become a new requirement of the ISO 9001-2015. It is also a philos-ophy vital for a company where knowledge is both product and lifeblood; our means to earn new business, service our clients effectively and grow our company and individual expertise. Our goal is
Making key Operational Tools and Methods work for the common good of our company and people - a new focus is their harmonisation and optimisation for all entities. Alexandre Zivkovic, Tools & Methods Manager explains why, what’s being done - and why he’s happy to do it…
"I came to this role from an entity (Nuclear) so know the practical side and that people are stressed by the amount they have to do – if I can simplify their lives with better tools and methods I’ll be very happy."
‘We all want to be more intelligent, more professional, more useful for our clients – having the right tools and methods supports this.”
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STREAMLINING OPERATIONALTOOLS & METHODS
REVIEW, REFINE, PROPOSEA feature of good Operational tools is they are not product specific but goal oriented – enabling a global optimisation to meet all entity needs. In recent months discussions with 6 entities; Nuclear, SSI, P&G, Tractebel Engineering France, Lahmeyer and LEME have made it clear what is working in terms of current tools and what are the shared or recurring issues to be resolved. Such discus-sions will continue in the future. At the same time benchmarking has been done with other BUs within the ENGIE Group and external companies, including ELIA, Proximus, ATOS and Microsoft, to investigate tools and, importantly, methods, being successfully used for Knowledge Manage-ment and other key operations in multiple-entity corporations like ours. Based on this, we could propose and agree with greater clarity what will work for all of us.
GOOD NEWS - BETTER TOOLS & METHODS ARE ON THEIR WAY!A presentation proposing the way forward for Operational Tools & Methods was made to COMEX on 30th July – allowing the streamlining process and roll-out of improved tools to begin as a living process. Two pilots (T&D and Business Development in Africa) have been selected to launch the Knowledge Management process inside Tractebel Engineering. Thanks to the discussions with and contribution of several entities, a first statement will be done early in September 2015 and ongoing information will continue to be shared across our various communication tools. Even as adaptation to new tools, or methods will take getting used to, I’m sure that, step by step, the improvements and time-saving benefits we can achieve for all entities will become clear and appre-ciated by everyone.
More info:
Alexandre Zivkovic - Tools & Methods Manager - [email protected]
to put in place the tools and, particularly, the methods to help make ongoing knowledge capture and sharing become second nature and rewarding for everyone in the company.
WORKLOAD & CAPACITY MANAGEMENT: To plan for new business, while managing a qual-ity and profitable current business, all entities need to be able to easily update workloads and quickly calculate capacities at any time. Over- or underworked engineers are neither productive nor motivated. Our goal is to create one system that allows management in any region or entity to accurately assess situations and share out/hire in people between entities accordingly – working effectively as a group in preference to other options.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: These tools and methods must align with existing prescribed stand-ards based on ISO 9001. At the same time we need tools that expedite communication between one other and our clients. We deal daily in services related to technical notes, calculations, studies, reports, follow-up of construction etc. with a huge amount of documents generated. All of these must be stored securely, but in a way that doesn’t make them impossible or time-consuming to retrieve and share. The goal here is to improve our tools to help entities organise project information and allow it to be reused without unnecessary complication or frustration.
KEY GOALS OF IMPROVED OPERATIONAL TOOLS & METHODS • Support changing business and new business models with tools that enables agility. • Turn data into information into knowledge • Assist decision making and cut risk by making the right data more easily available. • Simplify and synchronise methodologies to allow better synergies between entities. • Be in line with international ISO standards.
"Mentality changes and networking tools have made knowledge sharing the new power – but if we can do it so can our competi-tors. The winners will be those who move fastest to do it well."
"We are not inventing anything – just organising ourselves to make our ways of working work harder for us as a company so we all benefit."
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In order to promote the activities of our companies in Angola, Tractebel Engineering and Lahmeyer have shared a common booth during the FILDA fair in the capital city, Luanda, which took place from 21 – 26 July 2015. Some interesting contacts have been made and various meetings have been conducted to allow us to develop our business. Furthermore this was also a very good opportunity to demonstrate our joined forces and to team-up around a common goal.
FILDA FAIR LUANDA
HAVE A LOOK & SMILESupporting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and finding a “good” opportunity to get to know each other better in India, Tractebel Engineering (India) and Lahmeyer (India) joined forces to provide a meaningful change in the lives of underprivileged children in New Delhi. Giving up their time, several engineers and support colleagues arrived full of energy and armed with paint and paintbrushes to help with the renovation of one of NGO Smile Foundation’s Education Centres in the city. A great way to spend some quality time together and with the children who lives they were hoping to touch.
HAVE A LOOK & SMILE IT MAKES YOU AND EVERYONE AROUND YOU FEEL BETTER!
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A short video is available on this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj-Ngm3Mmjs
The sun is shining on Tractebel Engineering in Jordan where a new EPCM* contract has been won by P&G and Tractebel Engineering (Romania) for a 33 MW Pho-tovoltaic Plant (PV) for Arab Potash Company (APC).
SOLAR FOR POTASH PRODUCTIONPotash, a potassium based mineral salt most com-monly used in fertilisers as a crop regulator, is harvested by APC from the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan. APC is the world’s eighth largest potash producer and the only potash producer in the Arab region. With the goal to reduce electric-ity costs at its Ghor Al Safi potash production facility, taking advantage of Jordan’s high solar power potential, APC is investing in a new PV solar plant. The planned plant is ex-pected to produce about 64.6 GW/h which will be primarily
dedicated to potash production, but will also be connected to the NEPCO grid via an existing 33kV/132kV substation.
JOINT EFFORT WINS EPCM MISSIONTractebel Engineering is managing the new Photovoltaic Plant project from start to finish as an EPCM mission. This opportunity was achieved thanks to a coordinated and determined joint effort by P&G Renewable Energy di-vision and Tractebel Engineering (Romania) following an introduction to the client by colleagues in our Gas division who are currently involved as Owner’s Engineers for APC on a gas pipeline project. The gas team also provided useful support as an interface with APC during the contract bidding and negotiation phases.
As per most EPCM missions, the scope of work for Tractebel Engineering will be spread across all aspects of the project covering both the preparation and realisation phases:
Phase 1 - basic and detailed design, grid connection im-pact studies, drafting of the technical specifications of the different contract packages through to tender support to APC up to the awarding of all contracts.
Phase 2 – project management, design review of contrac-tors’ designs and documents, quality control supervision, health and safety management, site and commissioning supervision, completing with training of APC’s future opera-tional staff.
The contract was awarded at the end of July this year and the project is expected to run up to September 2017.
SHARED SOLAR SUCCESS IN JORDAN
More information:
Emmanuel Van Vyve: Group Manager Renewable Energy Realisation
Johan Craemers: Senior Project Manager
Alberto Verney: Sales Manager – Renewable Energy
* Engineering, Procurement, Construction - Management
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June 16, 2015 was “Innovation Day Latin America” hosted by ENGIE Chile to encourage and celebrate innovation as an essential element of busi-ness success. Of 5 Innovation Trophies presented – 3 Awards went to Tractebel Engineering LATAM initiatives!
1. PROJECT MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE IN 3DIMENSIONSAs part of a (r)evolution in Project Management, decreasing production costs from 15 to 10% while up scaling significantly the quality of delivered services – spread over 3 continents. Implementing and creating value through a Project Management Office (PMO) – A managerial success case at Jirau Hydro Power PlantJacintho Álvares, Rogério Zamparoni, Leonardo Bretas, from LEME Engenharia
2. SOCIAL HEALTH PROGRAM IN THE AMAZON. USING JIRAU HPP TO PROMOTE HYGIENE EDUCATION FOR POOR POPULATIONSWith partners ENGIE Foundation and the NGO INMED Brazil a social responsibility program Healthy Children, Healthy Features developed for extremely poor and rural populations in the neighbouring Amazon communities of Jirau HPP. The SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection) method, using only sunlight and PET bottles, provides healthy drinking water to more than 5000 children and their families.Cristina Ribeiro, Sustainable Development Manager from LEME Engenharia
3. SOLAR ENERGY FOR LNG REGASIFICATIONEverything it says on the box and more!Eduardo Andrzejewski, David Laurent, from Tractebel Engineering (Chile)
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!
WINNING INNOVATION - LATAM
David Laurent, Eduardo Andrzejewski
Rogerio Zamparoni, Leo Bretas, Jacintho Alvares
Cristina Ribeiro
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Watch the video: www.gdfsuezla.com/innovation-day-latin-america/
We always say our engineers are super-creative! Encouraged by Tractebel Engineering (France) Communications Manager, Marlène le Bourhis, to enter a photo competition run by the well-known Water Power & Dams magazine – Hydro-mechanical Engineer (and pas-sionate photographer on the side) Francisco Delgado won the contest with a striking picture of a “Man working on a Macagua turbine” - the Macagua Dam, officially known as Antonio José de Sucre, is a concrete gravity and embankment dam in Venezuela. Francisco’s winning picture was on the cover of the August 2015 Water Power & Dams issue. Another of his pho-tos showing “Guri Dam”, also in Venezuela, was published inside the magazine.
Bravo Francisco!
THE ARTISTIC SIDE OF ENGINEERING
In a superb case of “Standing-Out for Excellence” – Nuclear expert, Valéry Lacroix – and co-authoring team (Pierre Dulieu and Damien Couplet) – were honoured by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at the Pressure Vessel and Piping (PVP) Conference in Boston 21 July 2015.
Valéry Lacroix and co-authors received a special Certificate of Appreciation for co-authoring an Outstanding Technical Paper under the Codes & Standards Technical Committee at the 2014 PVP Conference.
The award was in recognition of his contri-bution to engineering and advancement of an ASME Code Case pertaining to Alternative Characterization Rules for Quasi-Laminar Flaws – the title of the published scientific paper. The now famous paper is, in turn, based the extensive 2012 Safety Case demonstration of the structural integ-
rity of the “quasi-laminar flawed” Doel 3 & Tihange 2 reactor pressure vessels. *
A large part of the Safety Case demonstra-tion consisted of the Flaw Acceptability Assessment based on the ASME Code which Belgian NPPs have to refer to for Design and In-service Inspections. But, the applicable ASME criteria for calculating flaw proximity and “behaviour” for laminar flaws were not suited when applied to the quasi-laminar flaws found first at Doel 3. An alternative methodology had to be developed.
As a Fracture Mechanics specialist, with former experience from Cenaero (Centre de Recherche en Aéronautique), Valéry introduced his team and colleagues to an uncommon methodology named the extended finite element method (X-FEM). It was the first time that specific grouping criteria were developed to assess the acceptability of flaws in reactor pressure vessels. Involving a large literature survey, experimental results and numerous finite element computations – this work led to the acclaimed scientific paper and to a new ASME Code Case – validated by ASME in April 2015.
“OUTSTANDING” TECHNICAL PAPER WINS ASME AWARD
GEORGIA ON OUR MINDS!
* Need a reminder of the story – see Tractebel Engineering’s online magazine Crossover 4.
Just as news of the successful commissioning of Gardabani – Georgia’s first 230 MW Combined Cycle Power Plant on which Lahmeyer India assisted Turkish EPC contractor Caliik Enerji from start to finish came in - P&G Brussels added another Georgia win to the mix. A 4th contract in just 12 months in Georgia sees P&G Brussels in collaboration with Tractebel Engineering Romania take on a new Owner’s Engineer contract for Tkibuli 150 llc, a subsidiary of Georgian International Energy Corporation. The contract covers the full scope, from assistance during procurement and contracting, through design review, site supervision, up to the commission-ing for a new 150 MW Thermal Power Plant in Tkibuli, Georgia. Our combined experience with Chinese EPC and CFPP was a key differentiator for the client. This win adds to a series of success stories including Georgia’s first wind farm for client GEDF.
Congratulations to all involved!
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR OUTSTANDING EXPERTS!
© Francisco D
elgado
BRIEFLY
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