Central Queensland Hydrogen Project (QLD)

Finding the right balance between cost and construction

The CQ Hydrogen Hub is a cluster of hydrogen projects to established hydrogen hub projects in regional Australia supporting the development of Gladstone and Central Queensland into a leading hydrogen based industrial ecosystem.

The project capitalises on Gladstone’s skilled workforce, industrial heritage, abundant renewable energy resources, and a large multi-commodity deep-water port. The project brings together government, industry, research, education and community to collaborate and accelerate Australia’s journey to net zero emissions and to support our trading partners on their decarbonisation journey.

Our role

Given the complexity of this, first-of-its-kind project and the diverse needs of multiple stakeholders, we were engaged to help provide structure to the program and support the coordinated efforts of multiple inputs from specialist suppliers.

Adding complexity, the project required the timely integration of the hydrogen production facilities, the hydrogen pipeline, the liquefaction facilities and the wharf and export facilities.

The size and scope of the project required a holistic view, with the project schedule needing to be agreed across all stakeholders. It also required the integration and alignment of data from multiple design firms. Interest from regional and state stakeholders demanded a tight delivery timeframe for the estimate.

Our services

Specialists from MBB provided planning and estimating, delivering a class 4 estimate and level 2 schedule with contracting and construction methodology. This included development of:

• Level 1 project schedule and assumptions registers
• Resource loaded and levelled level 2.5 schedule for all project phases
• Integrated class 4 estimate across hydrogen production, transport, liquefaction and export facility
• Construction methodology for all infrastructure, including crew load balancing and modularization of key facilities.

The estimate was successfully delivered in an extremely tight timeframe, allowing the timely initiation of the project. This required early development of the stakeholder list and agreement of SME and third-party input requirements. We also prioritised strategy workshops for level 1 schedule development to ensure alignment of all key stakeholders.

We created and implemented a defined program structure which supported the coordinated efforts of multiple inputs from specialist suppliers.

To control costs across the project, we worked with clients and stakeholder groups to ensure work and cost breakdown structures were agreed early and distributed to all parties to ensure consistency of understanding, supporting smoother delivery.

With a tight delivery time frame, to maintain momentum, internal review requirements were built into the development schedule, with clear responsibilities detailed at each stage.

With a large number of stakeholders, and the complexity of requirements, the prioritisation of key strategies as inputs to estimate and schedule development was key.

These included the development of:

• The Project Management Plan
• A contracting strategy
• An agreed funding and governance strategy.

Given the number of stakeholders, and the risks associated with a tight timeframe, iPLAN worked with the client to implement a design freeze prior to commencing the estimate.

To achieve this, iPLAN and the client worked to lock down the estimating plan, ensuring stakeholders were aligned on deliverables and scope.

This ensured no major scope changes were allowed (e.g. plant capacity) mid estimate, prompting any changes to be requested prior to the freeze and allowed a baseline to be established early.