Allnorth has expanded its ICE, commissioning & start up and other service offerings with the acquisition of Dynamysk Automation Ltd. in 2024. The following is a demonstration of the bench strength added to our team.
Overview
The client, a major producer of agricultural feedstock including potash, nitrogen and phosphate products, was adding a power generation plant to one of their potash mines in Saskatchewan.
The new plant, which was part of a multi-year refurbishment of the original facility, would use waste heat from mine exhaust air to produce up to 45 megawatts of energy, which would result in a 40% reduction of the company’s carbon footprint at that site, as well as cost savings for the company.
The new self-generation plant would also provide back-up power to the mine in the event of power outages, improving overall safety and redundancy.
Our Role
We were chosen after a competitive bid process, due to our longstanding working relationship with the client and their confidence in our ability to effectively execute the project scope.
Our initial scope of work included managing and completing the ICE (instrumentation, controls and electrical) construction portion of the project, which entailed:
- Construction planning, scheduling, documentation, team supervision, and quality control
- Installing cable trays and nameplates according to design specifications
- Installing underground medium voltage cables
- Installing, testing, and pre-commissioning of grounding and bonding systems
- Commissioning and start-up
The project scope that was initially awarded to us did not include procurement. However to streamline and expedite the completion of work, we were also asked to take on the materials procurement role for the scope under our management. This significantly increased the speed of execution by our team.
Over the course of the project, in addition to taking on procurement, additional engineering and construction scope was awarded to Dynamysk. This was due to our exemplary performance, as well as the expertise being demonstrated by our team in identifying and dealing with deficiencies and gaps in work packages provided by other contractors.
This additional scope increased our portion of the project by a multiplier of seven.
Unique Challenges
This project was executed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant much more stringent health and safety requirements were in place that had to be adhered to. Our team was effective in meeting those requirements throughout the duration of the project.
Due to the remote location of the site as well as the additional restrictions because of COVID, the client found it difficult to staff the project appropriately. We were able to provide the needed size of crew to satisfy the assigned project scope as well as take on additional responsibility on the project.
Construction Project Statistics
Total Hours Executed: >100,000 incident-free hours
Peak Team Size: 90 personnel – more than any other contractor on site
Cable Pulled: >100,000 metres
Terminations: ~25,000