Powering Up Lessons from Building Sizewell C for the Good of Britain

The South Wales and West of England Regional Network were very pleased to be hosted at AtkinsRéalis on 3 December 2024 to hear from Tommy Clarke, Project Controls Director Amentum and Head of Programme Controls for Sizewell C Project Controls, Dale Healy, Associate Director Atkins Realis, and Katy Henley, Associate Director Atkins Realis, both members of the Civil Works Programme project controls team on Sizewell C.

Tommy Introduced himself and his prior experience, including his recent work on the Thames Tideway super sewer.

Tommy discussed the UK nuclear power road map published by HMG which lays out how over the next 30 years there is a commitment to supply 25% of the UKs energy needs through nuclear. This in context with the increasing energy demand through Electric Vehicles, Heat Pumps and Data Centers plotted against a declining energy supply from 1998 from the existing nuclear stations which have shut down and other power generation stations via Gas and Coal also closing or coming to end of life

He then introduced Sizewell C (SZC) starting with the context of replication where Hinkley Point C (HPC) provides mature design and experienced supply chain for SZC to replicate.

• Will provide 7% of UK’s power capacity, at 3.2 GW, enough for 6 million homes.
• Security of energy supply and energy independence
• Low-carbon, safe, reliable, and affordable baseload generation of power and heat
• Legal commitment to Net Zero by 2050
• Large-scale nuclear is low-carbon with proven safety record
• Pressurised Water Reactors (PWRs) have an excellent performance history of high availability (>90%) globally

Although basically the same design as HPC, the project is different due to the, location, enabling and temporary works, ground conditions and infrastructure needed. An example was given of the different ground conditions requiring significant works to deal with water management prior to excavation, which represents a different set of challenges. However, for the main Civils construction many lessons from HPC are being applied to SZC which should reduce the risk and cost of the project.

Funding for SZC is a mix of Government, EDF and Private Investment through a Regulated Asset Base (RAB) a first for UK Nuclear and this was how Thames Tideway was funded. This is different from the 100% private investment for HPC.

SZC is able to take advantage of the many lessons from HPC as it is the second of a kind. There have been very few design changes needed and using the same suppliers as HPC allows the efficient transfer of their lessons and experience. Processes and construction methodologies developed for HPC will be applied.  This prior learning is being leveraged to significantly reduce costs.

The governance structure of SZC was stepped through demonstrating differences with typical set ups due to the stakeholder, investor and commercial framework implemented on SZC.

Tommy outlined the set up of the PMO and Project Controls organisation on SZC. He covered the different departments/functions and their role within the PMO including Project Controls, PMO Operations, Project Excellence and Innovation, EPR Programme (collaboration with HPC), IT Digital and Information Management.

The PMO goal is to “To build a world class PMO, that supports the SZC mission through delivering benefits for the project, its people and the industry at large.”

He covered how there are PMO mission statements and operating principles underpinning the goal with a focus being to imbed the SZC values of: solidarity, respect, clarity, humility and positivity. Tommy also emphasised the People focused operating principle and the fact that not enough projects and organisations focus on this and how he is actively ensuring that they are focussed on people and emotional intelligence at all levels. Underpinning this will be a single version of the truth, a ‘golden thread’ of verifiable data and information.

Tommy also covered how they have converted an Estimate to a Baseline, using standard terminology and process to keep it as simple as possible. He outlined that he wants the Project Controls team to be 80% focussed on using the information to resolve issues and keeping the process as simple as possible to ensure only 20% is focussed on process and reporting.

He also covered how they are ensuring the project is aware of the baseline through the development and roll out of Baseline Training and Tool. He covered how they have set up a Performance Management framework with an appropriate reporting cadence for stakeholders and investors. He covered how they have using lessons from other major programmes and the Infrastructure Authority reports and guidance.

Dale explained that the aim of the monitoring reporting and analysis systems was to empower decision makers by transforming data into actionable insights that can guide the project direction. The granularity of reporting becomes more concise as the level of reporting escalates up to the executive level. The ‘data lake / data platform’ of information at the bottom level must be managed effectively to allow valuable information to be gleaned and presented. They use Power BI to help collate this data together from many sources to allow insights to be unlocked so that decision makers can make properly informed decisions on the project.

It was very interesting to understand how the lessons from other major projects and HPC were being leveraged to increase efficiency and reduce costs for SZC, as well as the desire to share lessons widely across UK PLC.

The evening concluded with a lively and informative Q&A session.

Due to confidentiality, unfortunately the slides cannot be made available for the APM website.

Martin Gosden South Wales and West of England Network Events Co-ordinator