Planning can reduce logistics costs

The renewable energy sector is a volume business driven by time with logistics, often drawing the short end of the stick. According to Eugene Yntema, project manager for ALE Heavy Lift South Africa, despite logistics being the ham in the sandwich more often than not there is no consideration given to this during project planning. Whilst project managers maintain there is not enough budget available in the costly feasibility and prefeasibility stage of a project, Yntema and other experts maintain that logistics costs can be significantly decreased if planning for the movement of cargo is done properly. “One cannot over-estimate the importance of planning,” he told FTW. “In the project sector in general planning is crucial but when one is delivering wind turbines to a wind farm – moving between eight to ten loads of abnormal cargo a week to remote sites across the country – dealing with ports, road regulations, permits, traffic authorities and numerous other aspects there is literally no room for error. And one thing not being in place brings the entire process to a halt.” Francois du Toit, global discipline director: logistics for Hatch, believes project owners have to develop an appetite to spend money earlier on in a project. “We can achieve so much more if we do proper logistics studies earlier on in a project,” he said. “It is money well spent because there is no point realising halfway through, after having spent huge sums of money on an environmental study and feasibility studies, that the project is not going ahead because of logistical challenges.” This was the case with a project planned in the Lesotho Mountains. When the project owners and managers finally sat down with logistics experts to ask about moving several turbines to the planned site, they were shocked when told it was completely impossible. “We find logistical solutions in Africa everyday but sometimes the answer is a very clear no,” said Du Toit. “There are some cases where cargo just cannot be moved to a site and that changes the entire project. While one can understand that there is a hesitancy from project owners to spend money on logistics early, it is a decision that will benefit them financially in the long run.”