SNC Lavalin

SNC-LAVALIN

AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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INTERVIEW: SNC-LAVALIN

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By Liam Pritchett Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Dale Clarke, President, Infrastructure Services, and Vinod Batta, Vice President and Chief Technical Officer - Hydro at SNCLavalin, about an innovative hydropower project, sophisticated digital modeling, and the future of sustainable construction.

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is a fully integrated professional services and project management company headquartered in Canada. SNC-Lavalin provide services ranging from consulting and advisory services through to engineering, project management, and the long-term operation of assets to a variety of industries, including resource extraction (oil, gas, and mining), infrastructure (including clean and nuclear energy and transportation infrastructure), and industrial operations and maintenance, with an additional capital group supporting equity and project financing. Operating in more than 50 countries around the world, and with over 45,000 employees, SNC-Lavalin is one of the largest engineering services companies in Canada, and the world.

“Sustainability has been at the core of our project work for as long as I’ve been here, which is over 24 years now,” says Dale Clarke, President, Infrastructure Services at SNC-Lavalin. “We’ve always strived to protect the environment and to support local communities where we work. We became a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact in 2015, responding to Agenda 2030. In 2018 we appointed Sarah-Jane Stewart as our Global Head of Sustainability who developed our more formal sustainability policy and sustainable business strategy. We identified three of the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals which aligned most with our business objectives and the priorities of our key SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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INTERVIEW: SNC-LAVALIN stake- holders, and where we felt we could improve the most over the subsequent five years. These are Goal 7, which is affordable and clean energy; Goal 11, which is sustainable cities and communities; and Goal 13, which is climate action.”

These considerations are particularly crucial for companies, like SNC-Lavalin, working on large infrastructure projects. “Many of our projects will be around for generations,” says Mr. Clarke. “They need to stand the test of time. We talk a lot about low-carbon or net-zero developments and building sustainability into the design stage of projects. We ensure that we are considering those future generations, accommodating population growth and urbanization, demographic shifts, and climate change. We think about how to achieve a low-carbon future and how we increase resource efficiency whilst providing high levels of protection for ecosystems and increasing biodiversity.”

UNDERGROUND POWERHOUSE The John Hart Generating Station Replacement Project was a $1.093 billion project to replace the existing 126MW generating station with a larger and more reliable, earthquake-resistant powerhouse that is

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also more environmentally friendly. The project was undertaken as a public-private partnership – the first ever in the hydropower sector in North America – between BC Hydro, who provided 60% of the capital cost, and SNC-Lavalin, whose capital group provided the remaining 40%.

“The John Hart project is a real showcase project for us,” says Mr. Clarke. “Hydro projects are really at the roots of our company. The unique part of the John Hart project was taking the powerhouse – which is something that would normally be a surface facility – and moving it underground. That was really aimed at reducing the ecological footprint of the project.”

The original John Hart Generating Station, built in 1947, served Vancouver Island

for many years, but by the 2000s the station was deteriorating, affecting the output, and the building and penstocks were deemed unsafe in the event of a moderate earthquake. “The new underground powerhouse minimizes its environmental footprint and is safer in the event of an earthquake,” explains Vinod Batta, Chief Technical Officer, Hydro.

The project itself supported the creation of numerous local community amenities, including improvements to the adjacent Elk Falls BC Provincial Park which provides long- term environmental benefits to the area. “The project made environmental protection a primary driver in design, construction, and operations through several innovations,” says Mr Batta. One innovation included the design

“SUSTAINABILITY HAS BEEN AT THE CORE OF OUR PROJECT WORK FOR AS LONG AS I’VE BEEN HERE, WHICH IS OVER 24 YEARS NOW”

of a water bypass system, with a maximum discharge of 80 m3/s to keep the downstream river covered with water, allowing for flow continuity in the Campbell River during unplanned shutdowns of generating units. This feature eliminates the risk of dewatering important fish habitat in the river during operations.”

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT “With a project like this, from a sustainability perspective, one of the big issues is related to downstream water releases from dams,” says Mr. Clarke. “Historically, that has not always been as controlled as it is today. Today, we look at the downstream releases of water and what that is doing to fish stocks, riverbank erosion, and all of these aspects that are really critical.”

Included in the John Hart Generating Station Project was a new water bypass facility to provide flow continuity below the generating station designed to protect the downstream fish habitat. The project also saw the removal of three penstocks and the existing station to significantly reduce the project’s environmental footprint. The underground powerhouse design allows

for a narrow tailrace outlet immediately upstream of the existing powerhouse tailrace.

The narrow design and location ensure the river morphology, and fish habitat, remain largely unaffected.

“Two important considerations during design were the integrity of the flow split around First Island, immediately downstream, and of the deep pool located at the outlet of Elk Falls Canyon,” says Mr. Batta.

“Thousands of salmon hold in this pool in late August-September. In addition, the replacement of the three above ground penstocks with a tunnel meant that the penstocks could be removed. The contaminated soils from the creosote covered woodstave section of the penstock were remediated to park- land standards. The corridor is undergoing a regeneration to better fit in with the surrounding forest and park, and we are already happy with the results.”

use 3D spatial technology to create a virtual environment,” says Mr. Clarke. “There was a big digital component to ensure that we could see the placement of the components, check that everything was correct and that the design made sense, before we ever actually executed it in the field. This is something we’re doing more and more, using the concept of ‘digital twins.”

‘Digital twinning’ refers to creating a working digital simulation of a real, physical thing. “During the design stage of any project, we completely develop each project digitally,” says Mr. Clarke. “A 3D model is used to build the project, starting with the topography and including all the various elements of the project. We use a lot of radar systems and drones initially to plot the ground conditions and doing so allows us

MODELING TECHNOLOGY The use of advanced digital technology allowed SNC-Lavalin to model the innovative underground design of the new generating station at the John Hart Generating Station site. “This project was an opportunity to SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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INTERVIEW: SNC-LAVALIN

“THE PROJECT ALSO HAD A 94% RECYCLE RATE OF CONSTRUCTION DEBRIS AND WASTE, PLUS APPROXIMATELY 3400 TONS OF CARBON BEING ELIMINATED ANNUALLY”

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to look at various scenarios to both optimize the project design and to do so without disturbing the environment in any way. As a company, we are quite advanced with the use of the digital twin concept and are actually moving that even farther forward into the operations phase, meaning we take operational information and also build that into the initial model. In this way, we can actually simulate the operation of the facility. On the power side of our business, we have been doing this sort of work for a long time and have done a lot of engineering up at the Nalcor Muskrat Falls project using 3D systems.”

“Technology assists us when we’re considering all these factors,” says Mr. Clarke.

“It allows a lot more ‘what-if’ scenarios and a lot more design optimization. It allows us to assess a lot more of those things in a much shorter period of time and therefore end up with a cost-effective, efficient design in the end.”

EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS In addition to their work in the hydropower sector, SNC-Lavalin has been involved in several high-profile recent projects with significant achievements in resource and emissions reduction. “We finished construction on the McGill University Health Center in Montreal approximately five years ago, and we are now involved in the operations and maintenance phase,” says Mr. Clarke. “That building won a number of awards and certifications, including LEED Gold, and achieved a 40% reduction in water consumption.

The project also had a 94% recycle rate of construction debris and waste, plus approximately 3400 tons of carbon being eliminated annually.”

In the resources sector, SNC-Lavalin recently worked on the Vale Clean AER project, providing management and EPCM services for Vale’s nickel smelter in Sudbury, Ontario.

“We installed scrubbers and emission reduction systems to tackle sulfur dioxide and dust and metal emissions,” says Mr. Clarke. “We

reduced the sulfur dioxide by 85% and decreased dust and metal by 40%. The whole community up there is going to see a huge benefit in terms of air quality. Once again, we used modern technology to assist us.”

“In the province of Ontario, we are also part of the largest clean energy projects in Canada,” says Mr. Clarke. “The refurbishment of the Darlington and Bruce CANDU nuclear energy stations will provide Ontario with reliable low carbon energy for more than 30 years. We are also working on a metro system in Saudi Arabia, the Eglinton Crosstown in Toronto, and an LRT system through downtown Montreal called REM. These are all great examples of projects that will reduce emissions from vehicles by promoting the use of clean transit options in these major cities.”

BEST OUTCOMES “As we go forward, we plan to continue emphasizing digital technology and be on the leading edge of that,” says Mr. Clarke.

“Strictly from a sustainability perspective, we will be much more proactive as we continue to go forward with our projects, ensuring we create a sustainability-by-design culture and framework within the company. There is an intention up front to reduce or eliminate waste, implement low-carbon and resource efficiency strategies, aim for net-zero emissions construction practices, and continue focusing on providing benefits to the local communities. We will also maximize local procurement wherever possible. We expect to be increasingly selective on the types of projects we pursue, ensuring that they are aligned with our sustainability objectives. Ultimately, our focus is going to be to continue providing exceptional services to our clients as efficiently as possible by utilizing digital technology and project management tools.

We aim to be able to assess design scenarios quickly and efficiently, to provide the best outcome for our clients, the community, and the environment.” c SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Head Office: Montréal – 455 boul. René-Lévesque Ouest 455 boul. René-Lévesque Ouest, Montréal, H2Z 1Z3 T. + 971 600 554722 www.snclavalin.com/en

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