Aconex : Four ways an EPC leverages BIM to power Sudan

Enprode, a global engineering, construction and procurement (EPC) company specializing in combined-cycle power and gas plants, recently leveraged Aconex Connected BIM to advance an open cycle (soon to be combined-cycle) gas turbine power plant (Garri 3 and Port Sudan Project) in Sudan. Headquartered in Turkey, Enprode conducts business with major energy centers across the globe, spanning from South America to the Middle East.

Project Overview: Using BIM to improve efficiencies and lower costs

The open cycle power plant is surprisingly efficient, combining both gas and steam turbines to produce up to 50 percent more electricity from the same fuel than a traditional simple-cycle plant.
Enprode claimed their project wouldn't be managed nearly as well without the help of a digital project delivery platform to keep them on track.

The high-profile Sudanese public project wasn't without its hurdles, however. Enprode and other key players-Siemens, Lahmeyer, and the Sudanese Electricity Transmission Company (SETCO)- ensured the public had consistent access to power, regardless of project challenges. For example, Enprode BIM Manager Deniz Asar mentioned how difficult it was working with a geographically dispersed project team on BIM models. Collaborating across a range of time zones and varying languages within the team was no easy task. Enprode also had to meet a series of regulatory requirements mandated by the government owner, STPG.

Four ways Enprode stayed within budget by using a secure, cloud-based central platform:

1. Deniz's team found the platform easy to use and deploy, thanks to intuitive dashboards and configurable workflows. The ability to view dashboards and easily export reports is a huge time saver.'
2. Aconex Connected BIM improved access to information and input from reviewers, resulting in better project decisions with fewer errors. Deniz claimed managing the sheer volume of information on the Sudan project would have been much more difficult, and not nearly as efficient, without a system like Aconex.
3. The Connected BIM models will make ongoing operations and maintenance more efficient over the 25-year projected life of the power plant. 'We wish we had this functionality 10 years ago,' said Sudan's Ministry of Energy.
4. Enprode also eliminated thewasteful tedium of printing and mailing copies of drawings to Sudan, Germany, and Turkey; an added paper-saving bonus -in addition to budget savings-for the environmentally progressive, sustainable company.

The power of BIM

Deniz's team leveraged Aconex Connected BIM to share their models - and the valuable data associated with the model-amongst their group. Connected BIM includes project-wide access to models and data, clash detection, and the ability to view, rotate, and create mark-ups without authoring software. 'The BIM grouping functionality within Aconex helps efficiently resolve clashes. We can quickly rotate the model to view the associated information thanks to the existing meta data structure,' Deniz said.

'Thanks to Aconex, we're working in a digital office rather than an actual physical one,' said Deniz.

Read more about Connected BIM.

Product Marketing Manager
at Aconex

Corie Cheeseman is a Product Marketing Manager for Aconex, the world's leading collaborative construction and engineering management software.