Mr. Pham Nguyen Hung - Chairman of the Management Board and General Director of PECC1 and Mr. Vu Van Dien – Manager of the Scheme receiving award
The ceremony of FIDIC Awards is annually organized to honor projects contributing to the world’s economy and community in order to improve the life quality. Nominations are given to technical consultancy companies in all types of projects with a variety of scopes. FIDIC has now gathered representatives from more than 100 national associations.
The basis for the award’s nomination is: Innovative work with high quality and qualification; The principle of transparency and integrity is ensured in work; Sustainable work with intensive concern to environment.
In 2018, Vietnam Engineering Consultant Association assigned 6 Projects to be candidates for the award. In which, Huoi Quang Hydropower Project, which was consulted in Design and Supervision by EVNPECC 1, was honoured by FIDIC for the Award of Merit.
Huoi Quang Hydropower Project with installed capacity of 520MW is the 3rd underground plant in Vietnam, but it is the first underground plant designed by Local consultant (previously, the underground generator units of Hoa Binh and Ialy hydropower plant were designed by the former Soviet Union). The plant includes two underground generator units with capacity of 260MW per each, higher than that of each unit in Hoa Binh hydropower plant (240MW) or Ialy hydropower plant (180MW).
The plant complex consists of various items located in the basalt mountain with complex geological conditions. Machinery room - underground assembly floor is 81m long, 20m wide, 55.75m high. The transformer and before-turbine disc valve are 93m long, 19.8m wide and 30.6m high, located in upstream area with 51m far from the plant’s heart.
Two underground upstream surge shafts are 104.05m high. The fluctuating water part is in cylindrical shape with outer diameter of 20m, reinforced concrete cover of 1m in thickness. The dry part of 17m high, 24.2m wide is one of the largest hydropower excavation slopes in Vietnam.
The downstream surge shaft and valve tower is a complete unit connected two aspiration pipes and a collective discharge tunnel to the outlet of the plant. The shaft is 12.5m wide, 36.5m long and 77.25m high. Additionally, the auxiliary system includes more than 10 cable tunnels for power, traffic, ventilation, drainage and other construction activities.
Huoi Quang Hydropower Project
Outstanding creativity, quality and qualification in consultancy
EVNPECC 1 has studied and applied a number of software as well as self-developed calculation programs for projects to ensure the accuracy in design, stability and safety of work in earthquake-resistant areas with such maximum level of VIII as Huoi Quang, with many complicated calculations. The project shows proper economic and technical indicators.
The construction drawing for items of machinery room, transformer room, ventilation house and central control house of the work requires Design consultants to have a lot of proper experience. Therefore, in order to meet the progress and quality, Vietnam Electricity has assigned this task to EVNPECC 1.
Layout of Underground cluster works of plant
During the implementation of the design, EVNPECC 1 has faced many difficulties due to changes in the process of construction and installation of equipment, constantly in risk of making generator unit No. 1 delayed. On the other hand, the waterproofing work for area of plant, transformer room, construction solution for outlet is extremely complex (the water difference from the rising level of Son La Hydropower plant to the foundation bottom is 56m). With the determination to control the situation, EVNPECC 1 has proposed constructing solutions for items together with appropriate adjustment to be made on site.
When the ground of downstream surge shaft was being excavated down to the elevation of 208m, there appeared weakened rock zone tectonically destroyed which needs to be handled in a prompt time. EVNPECC 1 provided a safe reinforcement solution by dealing with the 3-dimensional deformation stress under the process of excavating down ground by the finite element method. The change in the construction solution using concreting work has shortened the construction progress at about 2 months, benefiting about USD 12 million from the sale of power.
For this reason, the Huoi Quang Hydropower Project was nominated by the Vietnam Engineering Consultant Association to compete in the FIDIC Awards in 2018. The FIDIC’s evaluation process includes many rounds with comparing among projects being nominated from member countries. The reviewing council is formed from former FIDIC’s Presidents who are world-class experts in the field of infrastructure consultancy.
For many years, there hasn’t been any project of ASEAN countries to be awarded. In 2018, Vietnam was the only country in ASEAN whose project was granted the prestigious award of FIDIC. The FIDIC Award given to the Huoi Quang Hydropower Project marked a new milestone for EVNPECC 1 in pioneering creativity in the design of complex underground structures and bringing high efficiency to the investors.