POWER January 2021 - 35

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
market to focus on lower-carbon energy.
Others, like Kiewit Energy Group
(KEG), are developing business in renewable
markets to diversify revenue
streams and customer options. " If we
want to be solution providers for our
power clients, we need to be able to
do everything in their portfolio, and that
includes all types of renewable energy
projects, " Stephen Packard, who leads
Kiewit's efforts in renewables, said in
September. " We believe right now that
the biggest market we have is solar, with
projected revenue of $500 million to
$600 million in the next three years. "
A notable aspect of KEG's strategy is
that it plans to bring the EPC model to
the renewables market, a prospect that
has generated a lot of interest from clients
and potential clients, it said. However,
according to Jake Strickland, Kiewit
solar business line manager, while
there's nothing complex about solar, it offers
unique challenges. " Solar is a quantity
problem. When you have 1.3 million
solar panels on a 600-MW job and you're
off by two minutes a panel, it can scale
up to millions of dollars, " said Strickland.
" Every second, every minute counts in
solar because of the quantity involved.
It's repetitive, but with massive quantities,
and that's the challenge. "
The Promise of Emerging Markets
Greg Brown, senior vice president of
Global Sales and Marketing within B&V's
power business, told POWER that B&V
is looking into potential opportunities
within emerging markets, including for
battery and alternative energy storage,
as well as in distributed energy. Brown
also pointed to potential growth related
to renewables integration.
" Across the U.S., from the PJM Interconnection
in the East to large utilities
in the Midwest and major utilities out
West, transmission-owning utilities and
transmission organizations continue to
see increases in transmission interconnection
requests, most tied to remote
utility-scale renewable generation. Such
demand isn't expected to decline any
time soon, and it could be further enlarged
should proposed offshore wind
power projects off the East Coast move
ahead to construction, " he said.
Another potentially lucrative prospect:
hydrogen. " New power generation technologies
harnessing green hydrogen
produced through renewable power and
more advanced battery storage show
growing promise in the quest for global
decarbonization, " Brown said. " There is
January 2021 | POWER
growing interest in using or adapting existing
infrastructure to employ hydrogen
as a fuel source, given its potential in
power generation and storage, advanced
transportation and fuel-cell technology,
and as a feedstock for green chemicals,
as well as the processing of blue hydrogen
with carbon capture technology. "
Meanwhile, Brent Bergland, market
director for Energy Storage and Solutions
at Mortenson, told POWER that his
company sees growth in hybrid projects.
Technology improvements and better international
availability of major equipment
could transform the EPC business in that
space, he said. " In particular on solar +
energy storage projects, we are seeing
developers and independent power producers
push greater integration responsibilities
onto EPCs, " Bergland said.
The Allure of Advanced Technology
and Digitalization
Beyond addressing their changing market
prospects, many EPC firms are heavily invested
in improving bottomlines through
integrated efficiency and technology advancements
that promise to transform
engineering and construction. Emerging
cost-saving
solutions
include
modularization
and prefabrication design, which
could help save material and labor costs,
and ensure better design and quality control,
as well as shorten project schedules
and minimize budget overruns.
Another is to use advanced construction
materials, such as durable or
high-strength concrete and self-healing
materials. Advanced materials could increase
up-front costs, but significantly
reduce operating and maintenance costs.
" This could become a key trend as the
industry embraces more streamlined and
connected approaches through the project
life cycle, beyond Design-Build-Operate
to better Own and Maintain as well
(DBOOM), " said consulting firm Deloitte.
The industry has also seen an investment
uptick in digital technology that
could, for example, enable better collaboration,
provide a greater control of the
value chain, and allow for more data-driven
decision-making. On the engineering
front, automated parametric design and
object libraries could transform the design
process, while on the procurement front,
digital supply networks that use machine
learning and cognitive computing could
help calibrate demand and supply of construction
material and plant equipment.
Meanwhile, an assortment of technology
is already widely in use to streamline
construction, including digital twins and
www.powermag.com
1. Power plant construction is continuing
a shift away from larger, coal-fired projects
toward solar PV, wind, and other renewable
sources. " Other renewables " in this graph
include concentrating solar power and geothermal.
Courtesy: IEA (2020), World Energy
Outlook 2020, OECD Publishing, Paris.
autonomous rovers and drones. However,
while these innovations could change
the way EPC firms approach operations,
design, and construction, as well as engage
with partners, they pose a specific,
ongoing skills gap that can create a mismatch
between the available employees
and necessary skills, said Deloitte.
Legal and Policy Considerations
Reflecting the dynamic nature of power
plant projects, meanwhile, are contracts
that address emerging risks. Contracts,
which are complex, multi-faceted documents,
can take many structures, including
a " full wrap, " which tasks the EPC
contractor with handling every aspect of
engineering, procurement, and construction,
and a " partial wrap, " where the owner
may purchase the major equipment.
As Michael Ginsberg, special counsel
at Farella, Braun, and Martell, told POWER,
there are also " lump-sum turnkey
projects, " which cater to EPC contractors
looking to approach smaller jobs
as a cluster of projects for contract and
negotiation purposes. " So, they will essentially
negotiate a contract for use over
multiple, smaller projects, " he explained.
Ginsberg said he is watching a number
of developments that could affect EPC
contracts. They include labor policies from
the incoming Biden administration, which
could alter union labor requirements, as
well as draft legislation that bars the use
of arbitration clauses in contracts. " That's
important to EPC contractors because, as
a general matter, they want their contract
disputes resolved by arbitration, as opposed
to the court system, which tends
to be slower. " Ginsberg said he is also
watching how the Trump administration's
bulk power system equipment order and
its potential constraints on equipment
procurement from certain countries will
play out. ■
-Sonal Patel is POWER's senior
associate editor.
35
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POWER January 2021

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