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New 75MW Solar Farm

September 1, 2014 By Greene Consulting Engineers No comments yet

NEW 75MW SOLAR FARM

Location: Northern Cape, South Africa | Client: AVENG Engineering

MOMA Titanium Mine WCP

Project Description

The project consists of constructing a 75 MW solar facility and its associated infrastructure.

Windfall 59 Properties (Pty) Ltd (the owner) has been selected as a preferred bidder by the Department of Energy (DoE), pursuant to the Renewable Energy IPP Programme. Oakleaf Investment Holdings 86 (Pty) Ltd (the main contractor) appointed Aveng Engineering for the balance of plant works.

Aveng Engineering approached Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd to assist with the civil and structural aspects of the project.


 

Project Scope

  • Greene assisted Aveng Engineering during the tender phase by compiling Technical Purchase Specifications, Engineering Document Requirements as well as Bills of Quantities for civil and structural works, which were distributed to various contractors for tender purposes.
  • We assisted during construction by means of undertaking a multitude of quality inspections related to civil and structural works, including the internal roads network, a control building, an access-control building, a storage-and-assembly building, as well as the entire piling operation.
  • We provided field assistance by means of a Civil Resident Engineer, which ensured that the project was completed safely, at the required level of quality and within the allocated timeframe.
  • Apart from conducting daily quality inspections, we were responsible for managing the civil, structural and piling contractor during the construction phase.

 

The latest percussion drilling technology allowed us to cater for various soil conditions that were encountered on site, varying from solid rock to collapsing sands.

Supporting posts were installed using fully robotic precision-GPS-enabled ramming machines. Due to small design tolerances, the ramming equipment had to be accurate within a few millimetres.

Preassembled inverter stations were placed on rammed supports. One inverter station was placed per ‘power block’ (39 in total)

The tracker units are easily assembled by hand. The process is labour-intensive, allowing local labour to acquire new skills.

As part of the quality assurance procedure, each foundation was inspected by our resident engineer prior to casting concrete.

Apart from conducting a variety of structural load tests, many visual inspections took place in order to ensure support posts were not damaged during the ramming process.

In order to feed electricity into the existing 132 kV ESKOM power line from the 75 MW solar facility, a tie-in was necessary from the newly built sub-station. A multitude of civil and structural work had to be completed in time to successfully connect to the ESKOM grid within a limited time due to the pre-arranged shut-down.

 

    Total Project Value: R 1.78 Billion


  • Completion of Project

    100%

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