Page 351 - Fluid Power Engineering

Planning and Execution of W ind Projects 311

wetlands. Stormwater discharge permit will also be required
to discharge stormwater from construction activities. At the
federallevel,theUSArmyCorpofEngineersandtheEnviron-
mental Protection Agency regulate construction activity that
may harm the water resources; at the state level, the state envi-
ronmental quality agency administers the federal programs,
in addition to regulating state-specific resources.

Logistics Planning
Wind projects involve complex coordination and scheduling of tasks.
This is especially true during the construction phase, which is com-
pressed into a very tight timeframe. Poor logistics planning can
be costly, because of the high cost of crane rentals, operators and
setup, and, in general, high cost of capital. A wind project, like other
projects, has complex relationships between different parts of the sup-
ply chain. Wind projects work with just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing,
JIT transportation with no inventories or storage, and JIT erection. The
schedules must be coordinated between the civil contractor, turbine
supplier, crane supplier, transportation contractors (with all three
modes: water, rail, and road), electrical contractor, and others. How-
ever,unlikeotherenergyprojects,weathercanplayabigrole.Rainand
water logging can delay excavation and foundation work; rain, thun-
derstorms, and high wind can delay erection of turbines. In some lo-
cations, winds are so strong that erection cannot be done for 6 months.
Therefore,iftheerectionwindowismissed,theprojectmaybedelayed
for 6 months.
Logistics planning is further complicated because of shortage of
most of the critical equipment and labor:

Turbine manufacturing has a long lead time

Trucks and railcars to transport oversized components are in

short supply and, therefore, difficult to schedule and resched-
ule. For a large utility-scale turbine, it takes 9 tractor trailers to
transport one turbine. Even for a single turbine, sequencing of
deliveries is critical to avoid logjam at a site that may not have
storage space. For instance, blades are scheduled to arrive af-
ter nacelle, which is scheduled to arrive after the towers.
Site supervision by turbine manufacturer is a specialized skill

that must be scheduled
Large 500- to 600-ton cranes and operators are in short supply

and the cranes are difficult to transport

A general contractor must, therefore, develop a detailed compre-
hensive schedule, obtain regular updates from all task owners, update