Asset owners face numerous challenges once a decision is made to shut down, decommission and ultimately remediate and rehabilitate an industrial facility. Early contractor engagement with the right partner can be critical to success.

Matthew Clutterham is a Senior Technical Manager with Ventia, a role he has held for the past nine years. Nathan Sparke has been a Project Development Manager at the company since 2015. Both have worked on complex environmental projects right across Australia and share their insights on managing the environmental challenges across industrial assets when moving through the closure phase.

ECI is crucial

Early contractor engagement with the right partner can be critical to success of a long term closure and remediation project.

Full lifecycle plan

Earl engagement involves planning, budgeting, work quantification, preliminary designs, and selecting optimal technologies and delivery options.

Collaboration is key

It is vital that all stakeholders work together and the earlier this collaboration begins, the better.

As more industrial assets move towards their end of economic life, there are a number of key things asset owners need to be aware

“In the past we've landed in procurement phases and tenders with the wrong solution already scoped,” said Clutterham. 

“So now we're finding that clients are engaging with us earlier to identify and manage risk and develop innovative and sustainable engineering solutions to their environmental challenges – utilising a contractor’s practical skills and experience with respect to design for delivery of these types of projects.

That's a big shift from normal procurement practices, and we're probably leading the industry in terms of providing early contractor involvement and support.

This early engagement entails planning, budget development, quantification of required work activities, concept and preliminary designs and selection of the most appropriate technologies and options for project delivery. 

“It’s important to make sure the solution they want to implement can actually be constructed and delivered, and that it is the right solution that doesn’t drive additional costs for the client,” said Sparke.  

“Being cost effective is certainly something we value,” added Clutterham. “Another is sustainability”.

“We have a strong focus on minimising waste where we can and managing material on site.”

Minimising risk is another key element of any decommissioning project.  

“A lot of the problems that we look at aren’t fully understood, and there's typically a lot of risk in the delivery; whether this is unidentified contamination or scope creep in decommissioning activities. 

“If a project is being delivered and you have that ‘oh no’ moment or something hasn’t been done properly, the cost just goes through the roof trying to deal with a change late in the process”. 

“But if we can provide early assistance, we can collaborate to help get it right up front.”

Planning begins well ahead of closure

As more coal fired power stations move towards their end of economic life, there are a number of key things asset owners need to be aware of. 

This includes accurate financial provisioning, the extent of hazardous materials, demolition planning, future land use and management of waste to name just a few. 

Sparke said clients often look closely at the above ground infrastructure but forget about contamination impacts in the ground. This has led to Ventia observing some facilities being demolished using large plant and equipment, and then they have the moment where they realise they’ve crushed all the services in the ground and released more contamination or damaged existing below ground assets. 

“So, understanding what's in the ground is key,” Sparke said.

Working together

Decommissioning a coal fired power station or other industrial assets is a major undertaking - it is vital that all stakeholders work together and the earlier this collaboration begins, the better.

“Early contractor involvement is where we try to get all the stakeholders singing from the same song sheet because you've got so many parties with different interests, rights and requirements. "

Everyone needs to be working towards a common goal to efficiently and effectively close these sites out - regulators, auditors, consultants, contractors, communities, everyone involved.

Positive legacy

Leaving a positive legacy is another important consideration for asset owners when it comes to decommissioning assets.

Cleaning up legacy contamination is the socially responsible thing to do” Clutterham said. “It is better to deal with these problems rather than leaving them for future generations to deal with.