Established in 1970, SNERDI is a high-tech enterprise subsidiary of the State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation. It is a key research and design institute with expertise in nuclear electric power technology and leads the industry in China. The business scope of SNERDI is plant design, EPC contracting, project consulting, equipment research and design, project management, equipment procurement, technology development and engineering services.
Identifying goals
Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI) is China’s leading technology research and design institute for nuclear electric power. SNERDI is responsible for the engineering and design of several nuclear power plant projects in China and overseas. This includes Westinghouse AP1000® nuclear projects, such as the Sanmen and Haiyang nuclear power plants in China and Chasma Unit 2 in Pakistan. SNERDI has a long association with Westinghouse, having produced 3D plant models to support Westinghouse’s AP1000 plant design, which is recognized as among the safest and most advanced nuclear power plants on the market today. It is based on standard Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology, which has achieved over 2,500 reactor years of highly successful operation. Modular in design, the AP1000 promotes ready standardization and high construction quality. It is also designed to be economical to construct and maintain while promoting simplicity and ease of operation. To continue driving its expertise in nuclear power plant design and support an increasing number of global projects, SNERDI decided that it needed to move away from traditional design methods and leverage intelligent, advanced technology to support an integrated design platform.
Overcoming challenges
Establish an integrated engineering design platform with 2D engineering and schematics and 3D design
Support multiple nuclear power projects concurrently in a global workshare environment
Improve the quality of engineering design and overall project productivity
Realizing results
SNERDI has leveraged Octave solutions to improve its design processes for its global nuclear power projects. This includes offering true engineering integration, enabling SNERDI to establish and develop an integrated design platform to enhance global collaboration and meet project requirements.
By offering a powerful portfolio of industry-leading, best-in-class design and data management solutions, Octave has enabled SNERDI to capture integrated engineering knowledge at the enterprise level for the competitive advantage needed today as well as in tomorrow’s market. The company’s integrated suite of solutions enables proven productivity gains, improving engineering efficiency by up to 30 percent. This is why the majority of plants built worldwide are designed using Octave solutions.
By integrating Octave Facets solutions, including Facets Electrical (formerly Intergraph Smart Electrical), Facets Instrumentation (formerly Intergraph Smart Instrumentation) and Facets P&ID (formerly Intergraph Smart P&ID), with its 3D design environment, SNERDI enables multi‑discipline engineering design for its nuclear power plants.
For example, the integration of Facets P&ID with the 3D design platform enables SNERDI’s engineers to quickly view the relevant P&ID data and generate the associated reports, without having to refer to a large number of documents separately. The integration also improves the consistency and accuracy of the data, which can be reused with other engineering applications to minimize errors.
Gu Guoxing, vice president at SNERDI, said, “The strong growth of our business requires reliable design and engineering solutions that improve our productivity significantly so that we can achieve a competitive advantage on the international market. Octave satisfies this demand because it provides leading technology coupled with strong local and international support to achieve optimized benefits from our investment.”
Moving forward
SNERDI has been a long-time customer and will continue expanding its use of Octave solutions for further productivity and interoperability benefits. The Chinese research and design institute remains committed to using Octave technology and will leverage its full range of integrated design and engineering solutions to meet the needs of nuclear power plant projects in China and around the world.