The foundation type of your tower, or construction method required to install a cable or pipeline can dramatically affect the cost and feasibility of a route. The following module describes how this is taken into account.
For each asset type- pipeline, wood pole, cable or steel tower - the installation requirements can be configured. This will allow Optioneer to:
⚠️ select the appropriate installation requirements
💵 reflect this in the costs, and,
🚀 optimise to minimise the cost of construction.
The installation requirements for each asset vary slightly.
🔌 For overhead lines, Optioneer considers foundations.
🧥 For onshore cables and pipelines, Optioneer considers trenched construction and three trenchless methods
🧩 Where does this fit amongst the other design rules?
Referring back to our design rule flow chart, it can be seen that the installation design rules, mimic the architecture of the asset components. The functionality of the two is very similar. Both contain a:
Figure 1. The design rule flow chart is inclusive of installation design rules. These have a similar structure to the asset design rules but are optional.
The data from the installation design rules flows to the asset installation priority design rule. This functionality of the asset installation priority is illustrated in Figure 1.
A sample route is illustrated from ‘start’ to ‘end’. The asset installation priority design rule will first determine the candidate assets and installations (A or B) along the length of the route. This is all of the assets and installation types that can be placed at every point along a route based on the technical limits.
It will then combine these with the user-defined priorities to provide the selected assets and installation types for each route. Where more than one asset can be placed on the route, the asset or installation with the highest priority will be selected subject to no technical limits being exceeded.
🔧 Configuring the Installation Design Rules
Before configuring the installation design rules, ensure you have first configured the core design rules correctly and then carry out the following steps. Each design rule requires different inputs from the user which is provided in more detail in the technical specifications.
Activate the technical design rule for the relevant installation method.
Check that the core design rules for this asset are activated. From the design rule flow chart, it can be seen that the technical installation design rule requires inputs from the technical asset design rule and it will not work without these.
Check the default values are suitable or amend them appropriately.
Activate the penalty design rule for the relevant installation method(s).
Assign penalties to the constraints. See Onboarding 2.2: Constraint Classification for more details on constraint classification.
Activate the costs design rules
Assign costs to the relevant layers. If you do not have the required costs at this stage, use our default costs to obtain a comparative estimate.
