Effective Wind Farm Project Management
Ulteig was hired to help with the construction of a 160MW wind farm located in western Texas. Our team provided full scope Project Delivery Services (PDS), including an entire project management team (Senior Project Manager, Associate Project Manager, and Project Controls Specialist) and construction monitoring team (Construction Management Monitor and field observers).
The construction project consisted of:
- 57 2.82MW GE turbines with 127m rotor generators
- A 34.5/138kV collector substation with two 140MVA main power transformers
- An underground 34.5kV electrical collection system
Telemetry/fiber connectivity was a major risk and challenge on this project. The only telecom provider available was a company that filed for bankruptcy within a month of the client signing a construction and recurring service contract. Careful relationship and communication management with the telecom provider proved to be ineffective, as well as engaging the client’s senior legal counsel and VP level influence. The telecom provider’s poor performance pushed the project’s substation energization by more than a month. Ulteig’s expert PDS team took the reins, finding effective solutions to the challenges, driving resolution and finishing the project on schedule.
The delivery construction budget was more than $175 million. Ulteig’s PDS team closed out the project delivery budget with $2.14 million remaining in contingency. The project finished under budget due to our diligent focus on contract, budget, risk, change and document management throughout project construction, as well as open communication and negotiation with major contractors.
