ALTEN’s client is an operator focusing on energy production in Finland. For this project, ALTEN designed a plant unit for the customer’s energy production plant, which enables the recovery of heat from wastewater for district heating. By providing our services, we were able to support the client in its green transition. This project took two years to complete. 

ALTEN responsible for the comprehensive design work 

ALTEN was responsible for the overall design of the project, with the aim of enabling the client to use waste energy for district heat production -and thus move closer to its own carbon neutral targets. ALTEN also undertook the commissioning of the new plant unit.  

The project started with process design, which entails the specification of the transfer pipes and heat pumps. In addition, ALTEN designed a new plant unit of approximately 50 x 30 meters. The completed unit contained 10-meter-long heat pumps and associated equipment. ALTEN was also responsible for the electrical, automation, piping and HVAC design of the plant unit and process, the purchasing and commissioning of the related equipment, and the preparation of the procurement documents.  

On the client’s side, the sole project stakeholder was the project manager. ALTEN’s project stakeholders consisted in the project manager, as well as several experts in the fields of electrical automation design, mechanical design, piping design, structural design, process design and HVAC design. 

Electrical and automation engineer as the expert in the project 

One of ALTEN’s experts on the project was the electrical and automation design’s team leader. He held the overall responsibility for the project, and he ensured that work progressed according to schedule. He also oversaw the preparation of documents, particularly, the basic functional design documents for automation and the electrical and automation procurement documents.  

The challenges encountered throughout the project were mainly related to the revised time schedules. These challenges were overcome thanks to ALTEN’s flexibility and capacity to adapt to changes in situation (e.g. reducing or increasing the number of ALTEN experts during the project).  

The IT tools used for the project were ePlan, a database-driven design tool, and Autocad Plant, a 3D piping design tool.  

This project was ALTEN’s first collaboration with the client. ALTEN’s experts learned a lot about the customer’s way of working. These acquired skills were put to good use as the cooperation continued to progress after this first project.