PGESCo is a leading engineering services provider located in Cairo, Egypt. The company specializes in the power industry and has designed, supervised and managed over 36,290 megawatt (MW) worth of power projects in Egypt alone. In addition, PGESCo has over 13,640 MW worth of on-going and completed projects in Libya and Iraq.

Identifying goals

PGESCo was contracted to build the South Helwan Power Plant, a supercritical thermal power plant with three units containing; steam generators, steam turbine generators and steam condensers. Once ready, the plant would be generating 650MW of electricity from each unit. For this project, PGESCo’s main goal was to meet the strict deadline of having the plant operational on schedule, while enhancing the quality of engineering deliverables and ensuring client satisfaction. PGESCo was contracted for the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) phase of the plant, which had to be executed in accordance with the latest international codes and standards. For this, the company was searching for software solutions to help improve engineering productivity and accelerate project.

Overcoming challenges

For this project, PGESCo worked as a Client Consultant for the owner of the plant. The scope of work was divided into six phases: supercritical thermal power plant with three units containing; steam generators, steam turbine generators and steam condensers. Once ready, the plant would be generating 650MW of electricity from each unit.

• FEED (Front End Engineering Design) – preparing the conceptual design and issue tender documents for international bidding

• Tendering & Evaluation – preparing the tender document, collecting and evaluating offers and nominating the chosen bidder

• Contracting – Contract negotiations with the bidder, reviewing the proposal, preparing and signing the contract

• Design – Detailed and final engineering design for architectural, civil, geotechnical, mechanical, electrical, control system and communication systems services

• Construction Management – reviewing the detailed design and fabrication of the components & the equipment, as well as managing the construction/ installation activities performed by contractors.

• Commissioning & Testing – monitoring the commissioning and testing activities to ensure smooth handover from the contractor to client and starting of operations to transmit generated power to the national electricity grid

Forte 3D and Aspect Pipe Stress were used for piping layout, piping support design and piping analysis to carry out the piping design activities and ensure that the detailed design by the contractors was correct.

Facets P&ID was used for system engineering to ensure correctness and generate the various engineering deliverables (valve, line and equipment lists, etc.). Facets Electrical was used for cables design, routing and termination, as well as generating electrical load list with breaker assignment.

For the structural design checks, Forte 3D was used for clash checking, and Aspect Structure for analysis of the structural designs.

In addition, the site engineers used Forte Review continuously during the construction management phase for further clarifications and to ensure that what was designed in Forte 3D matches what was actually constructed at site.

The Octave-based system also integrated data from external third-party systems, such as Tekla and ARCHICAD. Structural design and architectural information could be easily exchanged between Forte 3D and the third-party systems easily to ensure fast clash checking.

Realizing results

PGESCo chose Octave solutions to meet the strict project deadline and enhance the quality of engineering deliverables.

The key reasons for choosing Octave solutions included:

• Unique rule-based architecture with the capability to automate engineering processes

• Proactive and efficient support tea

• Proven technology with strong references across industries and countries

The rule-driven and data-centric nature of the Octave products helped PGESCo to improve the overall efficiency of the project delivery. While there were some issues between the integration of the electrical design and Forte 3D, the overall integration between different tools enabled smooth data transfer between different disciplines, supporting better revision control. This in turn allowed PGESCo to eliminate errors to improve the quality of the engineering deliverables.

Moving forward

For this venture, PGESCo had a team of approximately 60 people working on the project, with 30 people having access to Octave tools. Only 20 engineers had the ability to modify and delete data, and the rest with viewing rights. PGESCo will continue to work with Octave tools in its current projects and expects similar benefits in the future.

“Digitizing plant information with Octave tools helped us in eliminating human errors and data mismatches through automation and integration. We were able to use the information at the right time and place, with the latest data incorporated. Analyzing plant information was easy and could be done based on the business needs during each step of the project.”

Ahmed Nabil Information & Systems Technology Manager, PGESCo