EMPOWER CONSULTANTS LIMITED

Once the towers are complete, the turbines are assembled on the ground and pulled up onto the top of the towers in two sections.  First the tail section and nacelle is lifted, and then following this the blades and generator are lifted and bolted onto the main turbine chassis.  Its not easy at first, but the team got rather good at it!

All bolts are tightened to a specific torque setting, and given that each turbine will be up there for perhaps 20 years or more, great care is taken in each nut, bolt and washer.   

One gets more comfortable at the top of the towers than one might expect!

While this work was being done, the contractors were putting the final touches on the powerhouse.  The roof  was useful, and would have been more so a week earlier when it rained solid for 2 days.  It must be said that the clay roof system is pretty cool.  Putting plastic between the layers of mud is frankly cheating, but if it works then OK!!  The locals argue that the flat mud roof is stronger and resists the snow and wind in the winter better than a pitched roof.  Hmmmmm.

 Meanwhile Engineer Norullah makes sure the towers are all straight…

OK, the snow has melted and the site is clear so we are all back on site putting up turbines.  9 out of 10 are now complete.  No major problems but the access proved to be difficult even without the snow.  It is not an easy site!

The powerhouse is completed and the batteries and inverters are installed.  The power cable is now run all the way down the hill and some replanting of native trees is underway on the hill around the site.  So it looks a lot different than it did at the end of 2007!  We’ve also run a cable up the hill to the TV station, so the TV transmission will now be 24 hours too.  Not being able to get a crane ont the site to lift the completed turbines was a bit of a pain, but once we mastered the technique of lifting the turbine components up in sections using the gin pole and winch, we got them all up without issues.   The photo here shows a complete alternator and blade section being lifted into position.

OK - work is proceeding - will update as we move forward.

The towers are going up, but a heavy dump of snow has put the brakes on work for a few days.  The road to the new site is very steep and it is not possible to get a crane up the road to lift the tower sections, so they all must be assembled by hand.  Thats OK, but is slow work, and gets dangerous when the towers are icy, so we have withdrawn the team for now.  The batteries are almost in Kabul - should be here in 2 days.  If the road is too slick with ice then we wont try to get them up the road now.  It is a 12 ton lift, and we are not going to try this on a sheet of ice!  So we will work as fast as we can with the breaks in the weather, but as winter closes in it is looking like a finish date in March…

One day was like this!

 And the next day was like this!  A short climb up the bottom tower sections was required to get the ropes down….

 A roof on the powerhouse a week earlier would have been nice eh?

26th November

Work is underway on site.  The towers are going up, and the team is now assembling the towers on site.  The concrete foundations has not had enough time to cure fully, so we will do the towers first and then go back around and install the powerheads in about a week.

The first tower was slow as we worked ourselves into two teams, and got the procedure for using the winch and ginpole streamlined.  Its moving much faster now, except a winch breakdown yesterday has meant we are back down to one team for a day or two while the damaged part is returned to Kabul for repair.

The project team in the almost finished powerhouse.

I’ll add more as we move forward.  So far so good!

The project team are assembled in Kabul.  The containers of equipment arrived in Pakistan a week ago and made the transit into Kabul successfully.  Work on the project will commence immediately.

We are unpacking the containers onto smaller trucks to make the trip up into the Panjshir.  The main road is fine but the last few km is steep and difficult, and the containers were never going to make it, so the unpacking in Kabul is necessary double handling.

On the project site, the powerhouse is 80% complete and is expected to be finished in the next 10 days, but the contractor will be working hard to achieve this I expect!  All foundations are prepared and as soon as the containers of turbine equipment are on site the steelworks can be positioned and concreted.  Rapid progress can be expected now and I’ll keep you informed as we move forward.

The weather has been kind to us, and the road conditions are still good.  Ice and snow on the access road would have been a problem for access as well as concrete works, but for now it is clear and warm, so thats good.  The photo below is the powerhouse under way.

The Panjshir Valley Hybrid Windpower System

Afghanistan

Status as at September 20^th 2007

Status Report

The project is in advanced stage and a summary of steps completed are as follows:

·         All major components are purchased and enroute to the project site.  ETA of all components on site is the second week of November 07.

·         Translation of equipment manuals into local language is underway.

·         Project site works are underway, including;

o   900 m buried cable linking the wind turbine site with the government office complex
o   Transformers installed
o   Powerhouse is now under construction to house all system components
o   Wind turbine foundations are under construction and cable trenching is dug

The project team is monitoring the construction stages being done by local contractors and will manage the installation of all key system components during the month of November.

Tasks Remaining

The final tasks to complete the project will commence on site in the first week of November.  These will include:

Foundations
·         A priority task is to unpack the containers and retrieve the foundation steelwork
·         Set the foundations and pour the concrete as soon as possible to allow time to cure before the tower assembly commences.

While the foundations are curing: 

Training
·         Commencement of utility operation training with the system manager trainee
·         Practical on site training with the project operators
·         Revision of local language manuals and operational guides
·         Complete review of service and support procedures for parts and service expertise
·         Conduct energy efficiency training with the local governor’s office staff

Installation
·         Install the battery bank, inverters, transformers and switchgear inside the Powerhouse.
·         Install the first base sections of all towers to the first guy set
·         Install power metering systems in the powerhouse and at the main points of distribution at the consumer end.
·         Top sections of the towers to be installed not sooner than 2 weeks after the foundation concrete is poured.  Turbines to be kept feathered and unloaded for a further week.

Of importance to the long term success of the project is the training and capacity building provided to the operators, but also more importantly the permanent renewable energy staff in Kabul.  Every opportunity will be undertaken to build capacity and confidence with these staff to ensure that parts, service and support are available.  Projects such as this that begin to help build a commercial critical mass of renewable energy installations are achieving multiple objectives, including:

·         Leapfrogging geological and political boundaries to demonstrate tangible advantages to working with local government.
·         Building capacity with local staff and regional technical support staff.
·         Providing a base energy supply, not reliant on high operational costs such as diesel, to stimulate local economic growth, employment and improve basic standards of living.
·         Creating a critical mass of installations that helps support a sustainable commercial support structure  We look forward to a successful project.  To give a perspective  of the site, the view from the project location is as below:

All is progresing well.  With the exception of the inverters, all the key equipment items are now ready to ship.  One change in project scope is the location of the turbines.  While full consultations with all local stakeholders was undertaken prior to the project commencing, it has been agreed with all parties to move the wind turbines to a different and less visually impacting location.  This can be done with minimal project impact and work on the new location is now underway.

The power transmission cable will now be buried, rather than overhead, which offers significant visual advantages and less danger of snow damage.  In addition the new site offers improved wind resources.  Installation of the turbines will be a little more challenging in the sloping terrain, but it can be managed.

Onwards!

OK, so I am still getting to grips with this blogging thing and doing regular updates….  And my laptop ate its hard rive recently so thats my excuse!  Anyway - here is where we are at.

All equipment is now ordered.  Wind turbines, batteries, inverters, diesel genset and other items.  The subcontracts for the distribution line and power house are arranged.  So its all on track.  We’ve made a few design modifications along the way - water block filters and a sump heater for the diesel and significantly increased the size of the battery bank to cope with expected heavier demands from the Panjshir Government.  batteries are a weak point in projects like this but hard to avoid….

We hope the diesel will not need to be used very often,  but when it is required it will have been designed for the variable fuel quality and freezing conditions that the Panjshir can offer.

We’ve also added in a transformer and cables for the local school as the revised distribution line goes right past its back yard.  We figure if we dont electrify the school now on our budget then it may take some time for another group to find the materials and funds to do it….  Besides, if we finish a project like this and leave the school in the dark, whats it all for?

Power meters are a must in projects like this too.  the ‘lightbulb’ method of charging consumers is a disaster in most (OK - all) projects that Ive seen it used in, so power meters will be installed.

So for now it is a case of waiting for the key components to be shipped to the site, and ensuring that the subcontracts for the turbine foundations, power house and distribution line stay on track and on spec.  The distibution line, in particular, is designed according to the Afghan National Engineering standard for distribution lines.  Yes - there is a standard!  Our thinking is that all community energy projects should build the distribution lines in accordance with the national standard so that when (lets be otimistic) the main grid extends to these communities, the local network is already built to a safe and robust standard….  Doing it once properly is cheaper than doing it twice eh?

So, the Ministry of Energy is now briefed on the project and the Environmental Protection Agency and UNEP are also informed.  So far so good! 

Having said all that above, it sounds like this project has a purely engineering based focus.  This is not the case.  The engineering is interesting, but relatively easy.  It is the human aspect to this project that requires the most care.  This is the stage we move into now, in parallel with the construction activities.  Management, budgeting, training, maintenance and support are what will keep this project operational long term. 

So that is the real challenge.

The first thing we needed to do with this project was work out what were the resources and confirm what was the project intended to deliver.  Discussions with the PRT outlined the power outputs required and where the turbines were to be located, and where the distribution line was intended to run.   Consultations with the local Panjshir government allowed us to better understand exactly what they expected, and what their forward plans were for the development of the Panjshir.

A summary of wind data available in 2004 for the Panjshir valley is available here. Panjshir Valley wind data   This link shows information downloaded from a 30m NRG tower.  The original data chip was lost in Kabul for 2 years but rediscovered recently and able to provide data for use by the project.  The project design had already been done however will be revised based on the data now available.

 The data shows the speed of the wind and the direction of the wind, taken on 10 second intervals.  It really is invaluable for designing systems like this.  Here is an example of what a wind direction (called a wind rose) graph and a wind speed chart looks like.   I am very pleased to find that data! 

The Panjshir valley is a pretty historically relevant place in Afghanistan.  Home to Ahmed Shah Masood, the Mujahid commander who successfully defended the valley against the Russians and the Taliban, but was assassinated on the 9^th Sept 2001.  There is a particularly good book on this area called Ghost Wars, for those of you who want more background…   Or have a look at this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Shah_Massoud  It gives a short summary of the area and Massoud. Anyway, this blog is not a history lesson, but it sure is an interesting part of Afghanistan.

The project started with some initial works done by the Asian Developmnt Bank, as a part of a program to collect data and catalogue Afghanistan’s renewable energy resources.  A wind monitoring tower was installed in the Panjshir to track wind and solar data, and then was followed with a small wind and solar hybrid system to provide power to the Mausoleum constructed there.

This work was picked up on by the Panjshir Govenror’s office, and the local PRT mobilised to support the initiaive and undertake the local stakeholder consultations.  This was the germination of the project, helped greatly by Nick and Chris.  Thanks for your foresight gentlemen!

Afghanistan has a worrying reliance on diesel generators at present.  From my perspective Im not sure how the country will afford to feed all these diesels once the international funding begins to reduce.  Surely it makes more sense to design infrastructure right from the start assuming that the future will see diesel as rare and expensive in the coming 50 years rather than cheap and abundant as in the last 50 years…