The ever-increasing demand for electrical energy pushes forward the need for more energy generation. As the world seeks to find more environmentally friendly energy sources a very significant option lays on the refurbishment of existing hydro powerplants in order to increase their lifetime and capacity without adding any significant environmental consequences. Even though it is not a new practice, the refurbishment of HPPs can benefit from the increasing applicability of BIM methodologies that have been steadily spreading from the construction sector into the industrial sector. Using BIM in the refurbishment project allows for a higher quality overall process, more control over information exchanges and better management of the construction, the plant facilities and even generates benefits for operation and maintenance.
This thesis work will focus on providing guidelines on how to use BIM into HPP refurbishment projects by exposing what are the main aspects of the BIM implementation process, what BIM uses are most valuable for this kind of projects, defining some of the current challenges BIM faces when being applied to the industrial sector and providing a prototype for BIM implementation case study.
The refurbishment project for the Formin HPP in Slovenia served as case study for the BIM workflow. The case study make use of tools like Revit for design, review for decision making, MagiCAD for MEP libraries, and dRofus for requirement specifications and project management.
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