Shaping the energy transition. The path chosen by Amprion.
The extra-high voltage grid transmits electricity within an area reaching from Lower Saxony to the Alps, supporting the industrial sector’s efforts towards decarbonisation. Via the large-scale project A-Nord, Amprion will transport wind energy from the North of Lower Saxony to North Rhine-Westphalia and, providing a transmission performance of two gigawatts to meet the energy needs of two million people. For this project, which involves approx. 300 km of underground cables, Amprion expects a construction period of around three years.
Dr. Jörn Koch, Head of Direct Current Network Projects, explains in an interview how Amprion is shaping the energy transition.
The power lines required from the North to the South of Germany are reaching a new level with regard to civil engineering and pipeline construction capacities. Do you believe that the implementation will happen according to plan from 2024?
We are by all means optimistic, although some element of uncertainty around the course of the approval procedures remains. Moreover, the result of the participation process can impact the time schedule. On principle, Amprion has created all prerequisites for a launch of the construction project in 2024 and also committed whatever resources related to civil engineering and planning are required from early on. Procurement of material such as cable protection pipes can be initiated at short notice, and procurement of the private rights requires has also started. This way, we will have sufficient building permissions by the time construction starts. We try to eliminate any delays in the approval procedures ahead of time, e. g. by maintaining a continuous and close exchange with the approval authority. Moreover, the very high quality level of our technical and environmental planning documents prepared together with our service providers makes us feel confident that there will only be minor changes to the plan after the participation phase and that delays can thus be avoided.
Did you treat procurement of HDD capacities as particularly important?
Of course the availability of HDD capacities plays an important role for realising the HVDC (High-voltage direct current) transmission projects. That’s why, for example, at A-Nord we made sure to also commit the necessary HDD capacities to us at an early stage. We do not, however, consider the drilling process in isolation. Instead, we generally strive to get the resources we need committed long in advance.
Amprion emphasised Integrated Project Management (IPM) from early on. What were the reasons for doing so?
This decision rested on a comprehensive assessment of the situation which allowed us to clearly understand various problems and challenges. Like every large-scale construction project, A-Nord is managed according to the principle of separate project phases, that is, from project approval via planning, procurement and construction to commissioning. There rarely is a situation where the interests of everyone involved match 100 percent. While proactive early problem solutions for instance might be desirable for party A, party B might place its bets on supplements to enhance profits. Among the typical problems are also delays caused by lack of cooperation among the parties involved, a general tendency to shy away from accepting responsibility or disputes among the parties. We want to meet all these specific risks and challenges constructively and in a targeted way, and we are confident that introducing the IPM process will introduce a new culture of cooperation between clients and contractors. Specifically, our hope is to introduce a better, more in-depth and more creative exchange and a stronger networking between all parties involved in every project stage. So much for theory. Whether and to what extent these advantages can be realised in the context of practical implementation, time will show. From our point of view, however, the opportunities definitely outweigh the risks — at least if you bring the right partners together.
Would you mind outlining the IPM procedure for our readers?
Very roughly speaking, Integrated Project Management is about achieving cooperation between all parties involved, based on fair and transparent values, which makes it more efficient and thus closer. More specifically, this will rely on open communication and transparent processes and mechanisms. This creates the prerequisites for establishing a peer-to-peer, “no blame, no dispute” culture, within which all project partners — in other words, the client, the planner and the building contractor — share responsibility as a team and find flexible solutions for emerging complications in case of doubt. Integrated Project Management only works with the right partners. This is why even the selection process is complex and definitely time-consuming. The in-depth preparation or selection phase, however, ensures that the skills and interests of the candidates match exactly with those of Amprion, ensuring that Integrated Project Management can be successfully implemented together.
Contact
Ralf Utsch
egeplast international GmbH
Email: Ralf.Utsch@egeplast.de
Tel.: +49 2575 9710 120