Huntstown Phase II Power Station

For Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), winning its first European engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) power station contract with Viridian was a major milestone. The project was for Phase Two of the Huntstown Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power station located in North County Dublin, Ireland.

In 2005, MHI subsequently awarded Shanahan Engineering the main construction management contract, responsible for coordination of the overall 400 MW project. This included civil, mechanical, electrical, QA/QC, planning, safety and commissioning of the plant along with the installation of the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), power train, balance of plant, electrical works and instrumentation and control.

At that time, the European Power Generation EPC market was new to MHI who had limited knowledge of the Irish power generation industry. MHI had also committed to tight deadlines when similar engineering projects were facing delays due to Ireland’s booming economy.

Right from the outset, Shanahan Engineering knew that a can do attitude and a truly collaborative approach was the best way forward. Shanahan Engineering was instrumental in making sure MHI’s client management ran smoothly – both with Viridian and the existing power station already on site. And day to day collaboration with MHI was essential to ensure the construction process remained on track.

Coordination was crucial to ensure maximum productivity. Shanahan Engineering worked hard to match MHI’s detailed equipment delivery schedule by coordinating quality, welding and health and safety with the right people on site at any one time. Open communication with MHI meant that any design or material issue was quickly resolved.

Shanahan Engineering also brought in 100 qualified welders, largely from Poland, again to ensure the project remained on track. Levels of accountability on site were high with strict day to day war room meetings in place across all elements of the project.

Phase Two of the Huntstown project was delivered on time and to a very high standard. During its first year of operation, the power station achieved 98 percent availability with only one or two forced outages. MHI earned itself a great reputation for being able to deliver complex projects on time and has since been able to use Huntstown as a reference project for service delivery excellence.