Constructing a wind farm requires coordinating activity across multiple engineering divisions, vendors, and subcontractors. New roads are often required to handle equipment and delivery of the Turbine components. Collection lines must transmit electricity from each turbine to a substation, and ultimately the power grid. Cranes must "walk" from pad to pad to assemble the turbines themselves. Difficult terrain, environmentally sensitive areas, and carefully negotiated landowner agreements add complexity to each phase of construction.
Designing such a complex project requires rapidly gathering information from the different stakeholders and combining it into a cohesive design. Teams using different tools must be able to seamlessly share data and understand how individual decisions impact the overall project. With the increasing cost of materials, small reductions in the length of access roads or collection lines can yield major savings and make marginal projects feasible.
GIS is the common system for planning and analysis
GIS helps teams share information and rapidly iterate over designs to quickly generate the most competitive bid. Blue Raster has been working with M.A. Mortenson Company to optimize its patented Windbuilder platform by creating the next generation of GIS tools to streamline and optimize wind farm design, enhance Mortenson’s team experience, and deliver more value to its customers.
Blue Raster began by building custom Python Geoprocessing tools, integrated into custom application developed with the SDK for JavaScript, that allows users to import KMZ files from vendors into feature classes with a common schema published to ArcGIS Online. The tool parses all data from the KMZ attribute table and folder structure into a true attribute field while maintaining symbology. A separate tool exports ArcGIS Online layers to KMZ files, again maintaining all symbology and attributes, so they can be shared with other teams. This enables the ArcGIS ecosystem to be the become common system for managing data and allows access to powerful analysis tools for complex workflows.
Custom tools built for wind farm design
Wind farms start with a turbine layout, designed to optimize power generation. With a layout in place, designers then plan the actual construction. Access roads connect the turbine locations to allow for delivery of the massive turbine components. Cranes, which cost tens of thousands of dollars per day, must walk from site to site to erect the turbines. Collection lines then bring power to the substations. Each of these components has different cost constraints, tolerances for terrain, and long term maintenance requirements. Blue Raster developed a set of custom python geoprocessing toolboxes to quickly iterate through potential designs. Using ArcGIS Pro’s network analyst capabilities, the tools guide user through a step by step workflow to generate networks connecting turbine locations while accounting for longitudinal and cross slope, water features, and restricted areas. Solving the networks under different assumptions allows designers to see how small changes can impact the overall cost of the project.
Other geoprocessing tools calculate key metrics used to develop pricing and identify problematic areas for human review. By examining designs and finding areas that might be out of compliance, designers are able to make changes early in the process and reduce risk during construction. As all aspects of construction are related, a change in one segment can impact the cost of other segments. The automated tools allow Mortenson’s team to accommodate updates and then identify if other components should shift as a result.
Using these tools, Mortenson has been able to more quickly create designs and respond to solicitations, ensuring that they will minimize construction costs and generate the most optimized design.
Small design improvements can make big differences in cost and efficiency. Reach out to Blue Raster to see how GIS can help your team deliver smarter, more competitive projects.
Blue Raster has taken our ArcGIS development to new levels, helping us unlock generative design capabilities within the Mortenson WindBuilder platform. They consistently translate complex construction and civil engineering challenges into actionable tools that we use in both design and pursuit. This year their team played a key role in boosting our competitiveness on a major wind energy project that we were ultimately selected to build.- Ryan Griffin, Mortenson Sr. Design Phase Manager
Blue Raster quickly grasped the intricacies of our wind business, demonstrating impressive curiosity and adaptability. The tools they've developed streamline our GIS workflows, eliminate bottlenecks, and empower us to scale with confidence. - Justin Perry, Sr. Integrated Construction Manager
The tools Blue Raster has developed for us have streamlined many of our tedious tasks and have allowed us to more powerfully leverage the data that we have. Now, when I encounter challenges in our processes, one of my first thoughts is "Blue Raster probably has a way to make this easier for us" - Beau DeLaet, Senior Estimator
I love working with Blue Raster!! Their custom tools have significantly improved our workflows, saving hours of manual effort and reducing the risk of human error. The well communicated turnarounds, easy update request processes, and quality of their team inspires me to be a better person! - Ellie Boisen, Integrated Construction Coordinator