Aurecon completes Vietnam’s Dau Tieng 1 and 2 solar projects in less than a year
Project aligns with the Vietnamese government’s goal of producing 5,000MW of solar energy by June 2019
Aurecon has announced the completion of the 420MW Dau Tieng 1 and 2 solar power projects. The firm was appointed to serve as the owner’s engineer, in addition to providing project management, design review, and site supervision services, and completed the project in less than a year.
Billed as South East Asia’s largest solar farm, the project is said to feature over 1.3m PV modules, 170,000 pile foundations and 600km of steel mounting structures. The project is expected to meet the electricity demands of two nearby cities.
“To accelerate the project’s delivery, we also tapped on our international teams. Our South African unit contributed their considerable experience in engineering large-scale renewable projects, while our Bangkok team had good experience collaborating with B. Grimm Power on previous solar projects in Thailand,” said Worakarn Aimdee, technical director, Infrastructure Services at Aurecon.
According to a statement from Aurecon, the biggest challenge was achieving the June 2019 deadline to fulfill Vietnam’s renewable energy objectives. Additional challenges came from the solar farm’s location next to a reservoir, which floods from October to February every year during the monsoon season, thus pausing construction.
The firm notes that collaboration between the project’s partners and flexibility was critical to meeting the project’s deadline. The owner and contractors were invited to design meetings for critical items, where contributions were encouraged. Working closely with all parties, Aurecon notes that it conducted independent calculation checks to supplement the contractors’ designs, speeding up approvals and achieving the project’s outcomes.
In addition, the firm says that in order to manage the site supervision of such a large-scale project, it collaborated closely with client onsite inspections. Aurecon states that it joined the owner’s engineering team to ensure safety and efficiency was closely observed across the 500 hectares site.
