Major hydropower figures identify project communication inefficiency as primary concern
Brentford, UK – January 22nd, 2010 – Sword CTSpace, a global provider of document management and collaboration workflow applications for the construction and engineering industry, interviewed representatives from some of the world’s leading Hydropower companies (SNC Lavalin, EDF, ABB, Atkins Ltd., etc.) at the HYDRO 2009 event in Lyon, France on October 28, 2009.
The consensus opinion from these representatives was that though hydropower has shortcomings in the cost and length of its projects, the industry expects to gain the most from the extraordinary rise in demand for “green” energy sources as the safest and most proven form of renewable energy. Many stressed that the primary challenge for the industry is the necessity to strengthen the lines of communication on its projects in order to reduce project cost and length, thereby making its projects more attractive to investors.
(Videos of these interviews can be accessed here.)
“Communication is the key to a successful project,” said Ulli Wiedenmann, a Senior Project Manager at Bauer Spezialtiefbau. Many also exhorted the use of project management tools to achieve greater communication efficiency. Suzanne Leblanc, Vice-President of Hydro & Power systems at SNC Lavalin, was very positive about project management tools, commenting, “We use management tools that allow us to have access to a common database. Because often we have partners in different countries, we need to have a common language and this tool becomes the common language, so we have a schedule online for everyone to consult, and it becomes easier to share the information.”
The interviews also touch upon such topics of signal importance to the hydropower industry as environmental protection and risk management.
As a policy Sword CTSpace keeps in close contact with the market and its related issues and challenges in order to remain at the cutting edge of Engineering and Project Content Management. Sword CTSpace’s interviews from the HYDRO 2009 and any future video features from the company can be viewed on its YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/swordctspace.
To read the PDF Press Release, please click here.