Spanning a number of areas of Cameroon the place 55% of the inhabitants stay in poverty, grid connectivity is restricted and the ability provide is unreliable. Nonetheless, a brand new undertaking, which is able to prolong the nation’s electrical energy community, might assist. The undertaking entails constructing two 225-kV single-circuit transmission strains and supporting substations. Upon completion, the brand new infrastructure will improve grid connectivity and enhance regional entry to a sustainable energy provide. It should promote industrialization, financial development, and higher high quality of life, whereas lowering environmental impression.
Kalpataru Initiatives Worldwide Restricted (KPIL) is delivering the undertaking from design via development and commissioning. The corporate was answerable for arranging 297 kilometers of linear transmission line and lengthening two strategic substations required to attach the brand new strains. Unfold throughout swampy areas and dense forests vulnerable to inclement climate, the undertaking introduced troublesome terrain and local weather (Determine 1). “Tropical local weather, inclement climate, and floods make for under 4 months of dry working situations,” stated Raghu Ram, senior vp and undertaking head at KPIL.
A Legacy Venture Administration Strategy
Confronted with website constraints and solely a brief window of delicate climate, KPIL realized that its handbook workflows wouldn’t suffice. The group had a number of information sources, together with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and handbook information, creating challenges that wanted to be addressed, Ashok Kumar, vp and head of innovation and technique at KPIL, defined. Confronted with information administration, design, and technical challenges, KPIL sought to enhance its present undertaking administration strategy and digitize undertaking supply with user-friendly purposes to simply obtain buy-in from these resistant to alter.
KPIL tried utilizing a normal Excel-based planning strategy for on-the-ground planning and execution. Nonetheless, this strategy lacked integration and the comprehensiveness to accommodate the dynamic nature and complexities of the large-scale undertaking. Managers wanted to streamline workflows among the many geographically dispersed group, facilitate correct information seize and coordinated design, and implement progress and schedule monitoring, in addition to foster engagement among the many group and stakeholders. To beat these challenges, KPIL wanted an built-in know-how answer to ascertain a linked information surroundings and digital twins.
Leveraging Bentley Purposes to Digitalize Supply
KPIL chosen Energy Line Techniques (PLS) and STAAD for transmission line structure, substation design, and structural evaluation, in addition to nPulse because the collaborative undertaking administration platform. Utilizing Bentley’s purposes, KPIL created a digital twin of the transmission strains and substation buildings, counting on them for engineering and undertaking administration. Working in a linked digital surroundings facilitated information integration, and correct and streamlined modeling workflows, which have been essential to overcoming the engineering and collaboration challenges amid the troublesome terrain and the globally dispersed group.
“Bentley [technology] helped mannequin the transmission strains via the tough terrain and set up the tallest—86 meters excessive—tower in Cameroon [across] the river to attenuate impression on forest and aquatic life,” stated Kumar.
As a part of its digital initiatives, KPIL developed 16 immersive digital actuality trainings in 20 totally different languages, fostering personnel and stakeholder buy-in to its technology-driven strategy. KPIL built-in synthetic intelligence (AI) and Web of Issues (IoT) know-how to ascertain an analytics platform and single supply of fact, offering digital visibility and automatic perception. The platform helped determine and resolve potential onsite points and mitigate dangers. The digital twin answer enabled real-time holistic undertaking monitoring, in addition to efficiency and high quality administration, all through design, engineering, procurement, and commissioning for full lifecycle digital supply. “[Our] digital initiatives lined your complete undertaking worth chain, together with engineering, design, and centralized undertaking administration,” stated Kumar.
Digital Twins Drive Clever Workflows and Sustainability
“Bentley purposes helped us enhance effectivity, scale back undertaking delays, and [enable] threat mitigation,” stated Kumar. Establishing digital twins in a linked information surroundings promoted clever workflows and decision-making, leading to cost-effective route optimization that has decreased prices and minimized impression on the surroundings and residential areas. In comparison with earlier handbook strategies, the Bentley-based know-how answer decreased undertaking completion by roughly 9% and saved 6% in overhead and subcontracting prices. By means of digital progress and useful resource monitoring, KPIL saved useful resource hours and decreased onsite personnel by about 6% and prices related to rework by 2.5%, whereas bettering high quality of deliverables.
“[Our] digital know-how initiatives haven’t solely contributed to operational enchancment and monetary financial savings, but additionally resulted in ESG [environmental, social, and governance] enhancements,” stated Kumar. Utilizing the digital twins to observe supplies and gasoline consumption, KPIL decreased in-situ casting of the concrete tower basis and diesel gasoline consumption, minimizing the undertaking’s carbon footprint. This 225-kV transmission line undertaking eradicated utilization of diesel energy era within the area, lowering carbon emissions equal to 450 megatons per thirty days. KPIL’s digital initiatives facilitated well timed completion of a essential nationwide undertaking, delivering sustainable energy provide to indigent areas of Cameroon.
—Brian Rock ([email protected]) is the trade advertising and marketing director for vitality at Bentley Techniques. He has overseen the mixing of key energy-related acquisitions for Bentley, together with Energy Line Techniques, SPIDA, and EasyPower.
