CENTRAL WISCONSIN ALLIANCE
OWNER: American Transmission Company LLC
The American Transmission Company Central Wisconsin Portfolio is composed of a number of Transmission Lines and Substation Projects that are being built to support a new generating unit at the Wisconsin Public Service Weston Power Plant. In addition there are a number of associated small projects that support load growth and low voltage conditions in the Central Wisconsin.
In response to the size and number of individual projects in the portfolio, a Kenny Construction Company office was set-up in Wausau, Wisconsin in January of 2005. This office houses ATC employees and sub-contractor management as well as the Kenny management team. Kenny is the Program Manager on this portfolio and provides Project Controls, Engineering, Procurement, Material Management, Commissioning, Outage Planning, Construction and Project Management services to ATC.
Major Projects in the Portfolio consist of the following:
• Approximately 105 Miles of new 345 kV double circuit transmission lines.
• The rebuild and upgrade of approximately 45 miles of 138 kV transmission lines.
• Three new greenfield 345 kV substations and upgrades to 6 additional substations.
• Over 50 brownfield substation uprate and improvement projects.
Kenny has added value to the portfolio by focusing on safety, meeting in-service dates, reducing total life cycle costs, securing the necessary construction and engineering resources, ensuring compliance with client and stakeholder commitments, implementing process and project controls, leveling manpower requirements and incorporating lessons learned.
In an effort to reduce cost and improve planning, Kenny worked with ATC to develop challenge packages for all projects being built for the portfolio. The challenge package provides a complete analysis of the project prior to construction start. It affords the PM and the entire project team the opportunity to step back and fully evaluate the cost scope and schedule of the project as a whole. This process was initiated by Kenny and another Customer in 2001 and has been specifically modified to meet the needs of ATC.
One of the major hurdles in these projects has been the environmental requirements of the Wisconsin DNR. A portion of all of the lines passes through environmentally sensitive wetlands and protected species inhabit other work areas. Kenny works with the ATC resources to support the ATC Green Tier initiative which demonstrates superior environmental performance.