Friday, October 22, 2010

Who's Who on the Wind Project?

Who’s involved with MWCC’s wind project? Or rather, who’s not? Well over 100 people will play significant roles in the construction of the two Vestas V82 turbines on the college’s Gardner campus: a team from the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management; Falmouth-based J.K. Scanlan Company, Inc., the general contractor; civil, structural and electrical engineers; project managers and supervisors; drilling contractors; excavators; concrete subcontractors; electricians; truck drivers; crane operators and crane mechanics; turbine technicians; accountants and financial managers, for starters.
And that doesn’t include the specialists involved during years of planning, studies and design; those who secured and are administering federal and state funding for the project; the state agencies and leaders working behind the scenes; the folks from National Grid who will oversee interconnection; or those who manufactured the tower components, long before this summer’s groundbreaking.
While construction continues, a team of 10 key players gathers weekly in the Drake Boardroom to hash out details of the DCAM project, which is part of Massachusetts’ overarching initiative to achieve greater energy independence by 2020.
Seated at the table from DCAM are David Fang, project manager, and local residents Phil Godin, project engineer and Ted Fiffy, resident engineer. From J.K. Scanlan, which was awarded $18.6 million in contracts to build MWCC’s turbines and the neighboring towers going up at the North Central Correctional Institution, you’ll find Andrew Baker, project executive; Greg Inman, project manager; Joe DiPietro, project supervisor; and Chris Grant, general superintendent and safety officer.
Rounding out this construction team are the players from the Mount: Vice President of Finance and Administration Bob LaBonte, who oversees the financial aspects for the college as well as the facilities department, and Bill Swift, director of maintenance and mechanical systems, who ultimately will be among those responsible for the daily operations of the turbines. And of course, there’s Ed Terceiro, MWCC's resident engineer, who as executive vice president set the college down its green path a decade ago with President Daniel Asquino, and kept forging ahead to reach this project, which now amounts to the fifth renewable energy source on the campus.
"DCAM Commissioner David Perini appreciates Ed's experience, not only for this project, but all of the renewable projects on the campus," David Fang said.

For David Fang and Phil Godin, the Mount’s a familiar place. Both took part in building the Garrison Center for Early Childhood Education in 2005, as well as the installation last summer of the 100 kW photovoltaic solar array on the roof of the main campus.  Before that, Phil was part of the biomass project, the 2002 energy conversion that started it all.
The wind project ties in with Governor Deval Patrick's ambitious and historic goal for the Commonwealth - the installation of 2,000 megawatts of wind energy by the year 2020. In September, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles said the state projects at MWCC and the NCCI are helping to meet that goal. Assisting with that effort is DCAM's Energy Efficiency & Sustainable Buildings Group, also known as "The E-Team," within the Office of Facilities Management, led by Hope Davis as director, Jenna Ide as deputy director, and John Crisley, energy planner; as well as the Department of Energy Resources.

Along with the consultant Jacobs Engineering, the E-Team led the study, initial design and procurement. The project at MWCC also involves contracts coordination from DCAM's Office of Finance, the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance, and the MassDevelopment Finance Agency.

Also on the construction sites here and at NCCI is Laura Nieburg, project manager with Vestas Americas, who is responsible for the equipment from delivery until it's brought online.
“A few years ago, John Scanlan had the vision of getting into renewable energy,” the company’s Andrew Baker explains. The leap from solar installation to wind turbines was an inevitable progression for the 26-year-old construction firm, which last year erected a turbine at a Veterans Administration hospital in St. Cloud, Minn. “It’s largely about surrounding yourself with the proper team, and the team we have here has years and years of experience.” 

3 comments:

  1. very informative ~ thank you!

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  2. no credit to the people nor the company who actually stand them up

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  3. Hey Chris, Thanks for reading the blog and commenting. You may want to check out a few prior posts about some of the local folks involved with the turbine construction:

    From Dec. 5 - http://greenongreenstreet.blogspot.com/2010/12/one-up-one-to-go.html

    and Nov. 24 - http://greenongreenstreet.blogspot.com/2010/11/tower-nacelle-go-up-on-north-turbine.html

    We definitely plan to write more about the local involvement, so if you have any suggestions, let us know!

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