Boost facilitates the takeover of Vantaa Energy’s waste-to-energy plant expansion project

Vantaa Energy’s goal is to achieve fossil-free energy production. The expansion of Vantaa Energy’s waste-to-energy plant, which was completed in the fall of 2022, is an important step toward this goal. With the implementation of the extension, Vantaa Energy has gained additional capacity for the energy recovery of domestic energy waste that is not suitable for recycling.

Boost Brothers has acted as a facilitator in the plant expansion’s takeover process, which is considered an exemplary model of internal takeovers of power plants at Vantaa Energy. The takeover process has ensured a smooth commissioning of the power plant property. The common goal has been to create a takeover process that can be applied to similar projects in the future.

Creating the takeover process

The takeover project, which started in the spring of 2022, has resulted in an operating model, developed together by Boost Brothers and Vantaa Energy’s operating and maintenance personnel, on how to carry out a controlled takeover of a new power plant. The takeover of the extension was carried out at the same time as the commissioning, so the takeover process needed to be as efficient as possible.

A facilitation groundwork created by Boost was used as a model for the operation. At the beginning of the project, three workshops were arranged, the results of which have been used to create an operating model and a comprehensive takeover document describing it, with all the related tasks and responsibilities documented.

In the role of a facilitator, Boost has performed tasks such as project organization and scheduling, preparation and implementation of the workshops, interviewing key personnel, and compiling, analyzing, and presenting the foreground data.

Documenting the process is important from start to finish, so that the process can be refined until the next time and a memory trace of the project is available for later use, if necessary.

Key elements of a successful takeover process

The waste-to-energy plant underwent a trial period before the commercial use of the extension began last fall.

Takeover tasks have been monitored approximately once a month, for example, in monitoring workshops, where the realization of tasks are monitored, completed tasks are recorded, tasks are specified when necessary and any problems that have arisen are agreed upon.

The success of a takeover process is evaluated by examining how the client’s key objectives and key personnel are taken into account in the implementation process. A successful takeover also requires that the phases and challenges of the commissioning are systematically identified and their measures agreed upon.

Kennet Lundström, Boost’s project manager, talks about the project atmosphere in the final stretch:

“Communication and interaction are particularly important in a successful takeover. It is necessary to create an environment and an atmosphere that allow for an effective, low-threshold dialogue between the implementing and operating parties as well as the maintenance teams.

The keys to success are documentation, standardization of tasks, the verification process, and targeted, sufficient resources. These are at a very good level in the waste-to-energy plant expansion project. Vantaa Energy has done a great job.”