Alasdair Cathcart is a Scotsman who
grew up near Glasgow. He received his
engineering education at Heriot-Watt
University in Edinburgh, graduating with
honors and a B Sc degree in Civil
Engineering. He has worked at Bechtel for
22 years in such places as the Middle East,
Africa, Eastern Europe, and the United
Kingdom. He was recently named president
of Bechtel’s Power Global Business Unit,
assuming his responsibilities January 1. As
president of the Power GBU, Cathcart oversees
its four business lines: Fossil, Nuclear,
Renewables, and Communications & Transmission. He has full responsibility for
the GBU’s operations, including business development, project execution, customer
satisfaction, and unit profitability.
Previously, Cathcart was the president
of Bechtel’s Fossil Power division, preceded
by working as the project director of
Bechtel’s massive Elm Road Generating
Station project on the shores of Lake
Michigan in Wisconsin. This was a 1,230
MW coal-fired supercritical power station
built by Bechtel for Wisconsin Energy.
Cathcart also held the position of president
of Bechtel construction Operations
Incorporated, where he managed Bechtel’s
direct-hire, equipment operation, and construction
management processes around
the world.
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Alasdair
Cathcart
is President
of Bechtel
Power Global
Business Unit
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Cathcart was the project director for
the Croatian Motorway and project manager
for the UK Channel Tunnel High Speed
Rail Link project. In all, he has experience
in four major Bechtel business lines: Civil;
Power; Oil, Gas & Chemicals; and Mining & Metals. World Generation recently sat
down with Alasdair Cathcart in his
Frederick, Md., offices and learned about
his views on Bechtel’s projects and strategies.
COMMUNICATIONS & TRANSMISSION
A Communications & Transmissions
business line was established in the Power
GBU over a year ago. “We did this for a reason,”
Cathcart says. “We could see from the
projections of the power industry that
almost as much investment was necessary
on transmission and distribution as on generation.
We determined that we could add
value to our customers by offering a dedicated
project management focus on the
transmission and distribution of power as
separate standalone projects.”
Cathcart points out that Bechtel had
performed transmission work in its past but
not worked on large projects of this sort
recently. To quickly revitalize the talent and
skill set for this new business line, Bechtel
turned to its experience in the communications
business. A long time standalone business,
Communications has had the processes
for working with complex logistics,
mobile work crews, rights-of-way, and erecting
towers. In its years of providing services
to the communications industry,
Bechtel has refined its engineering, procurement,
and construction skills by building
a vast infrastructure. “When we looked
at Communications and the tools, processes,
and procedures developed to be successful
in that business, those capabilities
were the most like what we would need for
building transmission towers and routing
wire,” Cathcart says. “What we decided to
do was bring the communications business
and transmission business together with
the Power GBU, which of course would
also put them in closer contact with people
working on the generation projects. The
president of the former Communications
business line now heads up
Communications & Transmissions. This is
a bit of a new focus for us, a new market,
but we are very keen about it and look to
be a bigger player here going forward.”
Cathcart says he is hoping to sign up at
least one large transmission project in
North America this year.
FOSSIL POWER
The Fossil Fuel division comprises
five market segments: Solid Fuel; Natural
Gas; IGCC; Emissions Retrofit; and
Operating Plant Services. Cathcart pointed
out that Bechtel’s large solid-fuel projects
that spanned the last five years are coming
to an end. Bechtel turned over Unit #1 of
the Elm Road project a year ago and Unit
#2 very recently. Elm Road is a 1230 MW
supercritical pulverized coal plant. Cathcart
says Bechtel is very proud of its performance
there, having constructed what he
called one of the most efficient coal plants
in the nation.
But he acknowledges that domestically
the development of coal plants faces difficulties
and that in the United States natural
gas is the more likely choice for the foreseeable
future. “The switch from coal to
natural gas is the dominant driver in our
Fossil business,” Cathcart says, “and
maybe in the whole power industry. Even
though new supercritical technology is 30%
more efficient and produces far less CO2
than older coal generating facilities, the
uncertainty of carbon tax and regulation, I
think gives utilities pause. They will weigh
investments in emissions retrofit, waiting to
see how regulation is going to fall, against
building with natural gas given the prices
we have now.”
Also worthy of note are the Sammis
emissions retrofit project in Ohio, which
removes 95% of SO2 from pre-retrofit levels,
and the Prairie State campus southeast of
St. Louis. Prairie State is about 65% complete.
Cathcart’s group will turn over the
first unit at the end of this year and the second
and final unit in the summer of next
year; when complete, the plant will be one
of the cleanest solid fuel plants in the
nation. Under the natural gas market segment,
Bechtel is building the Russell City
combined cycle project for Calpine southeast
of San Francisco. Cathcart’s group has
just begun the foundation work.
Internationally, Cathcart sees many
opportunities for Power. This applies not
only to the Fossil division but to other divisions
as well. “This is something I am going
to be focusing on,” he says. “Bechtel works
in many places around the world, while we
have been active in several international
locations, Power has concentrated in North
America because of the large and complex
projects it has been doing here.” He sees
the shift away from coal to natural gas in
North America echoed in other parts of the
world, and he makes a special point of noting
the UK – “There is a big gas market in
the UK that we are entering,” he says. “We
completed four gas projects in the UK in
the early part of the decade. We are leveraging
our long term presence in London
and we are increasing our Power offices
there to help support our power projects in
the UK and Europe.”
Elsewhere, Bechtel is exploring other
opportunities to put to use its experience in
solid fuel plant construction. A particular
country of interest is India, which will be
commissioning plants both inland – near
mine mouths where the coal is – and along
the coast, where the plants are likely to be
importing Australian and Indonesian coal.
But Cathcart is quick to point out that just
as Bechtel wants to be diverse in North
America, so does it want to be flexible
abroad. And he sees trying to establish a
better presence in South America. He
points out that Bechtel has a strong presence
there with its Mining & Metals GBU.
“We are already working with M&M, to see
if there are ways Power can get back into
South America in a significant way,” he
says.
NUCLEAR
Cathcart’s nuclear group has three
primary market segments: New
Generation; Major Modifications; and
Operating Plant Services.
Under New Generation, Cathcart’s
workload includes planning and engineering
for new nuclear power plants and a significant
amount of work restoring and completing
previously idled units including the
Watts Bar Unit 2 work in Tennessee, where
the reactor was begun but then put on hold
for 20 years. Cathcart’s group is doing the
engineering, procurement, and construction
at Watts Bar, working to bring the unit
online next year.
Work has started on the engineering
for the proposed third reactor at Calvert
Cliffs, Maryland. Cathcart admits that this
project has been “challenged” –
Constellation Energy withdrew from
UniStar Nuclear Energy – and Francebased
global energy company EDF remains
the sole sponsor of the project. It would be
the first EPR reactor in the United States.
Says Cathcart: “EDF has continued with
their application for a combined operating
and construction license for the project.
Given the need for DOE loan guarantees,
NRC approval of the project and technology,
and over 70% engineering before noticeto-
proceed, this development is going to
take some time; the pace is going to be
slow.” New Generation also includes licensing
support for seven new nuclear projects
in the U.S.
Cathcart’s group is also working in
the small modular nuclear reactors (SMR)
field. Here Bechtel entered into a relationship
last July with Babcock & Wilcox
(B&W) as the principal partner and developer
of mPower, B&W’s 125 MW small
modular nuclear power reactor technology.
“There is a lot of development work to go,”
admits Cathcart, “but we are looking to it as
a long-term solution. We think SMRs may
be a solution for our clients to bring nuclear
into their fuel mix without having to wrestle
with the significant front end investment
associated with large plants. We feel very
positive about mPower, albeit as a medium to
longer-term play. We are working with
B&W to secure the design certification and
develop projects.”
Major Modifications and Operating
Plant Services jobs are key for continuing
to sustain Bechtel’s nuclear talent. Owing to
the lack of new nuclear construction in the
United States over recent decades, holding
onto nuclear talent and skill sets is difficult.
But it can be done with the Major
Modifications and Operating Plants work.
Cathcart says Bechtel has done well in this
regard: “Obviously nuclear projects take a
long time designing and permitting, but
you have to have good people and skills
ready to go. When these major projects are
suddenly ready, we just can’t snap our fingers
and hope to have the right people,
skills and supply chains. We are actively
looking to attract, recruit, and retain
nuclear talent. We’ve been doing this well
for over 25 years with our Major Mods and
Operating Plants work. We’ve completed
over 30 steam generator replacement projects,
are currently supporting over half a
dozen extended power uprate projects and
continue to provide operating plant services
to plants in the U.S. and abroad. You have
to have a business strategy that includes
developing this talent, and that is exactly
what we’ve been able to do.”
RENEWABLES
Bechtel worked on some early solar
and wind projects in the 1980s and ‘90s but
has not been as active in the Renewables
market for the last several years. That
ended in a big way with the award of the
BrightSource Ivanpah project in southeast
California. The 370MW, three unit solarthermal
project uses thousands of heliostats
focusing light on three boilers atop central
towers that produce steam for driving electric
generators. When completed it will be
the world’s largest solar thermal project
and effectively double the U.S. solar thermal capacity. Cathcart’s group has
already fenced much of the site, is doing
foundation work for the towers and is
building the temporary facilities that will
assemble the heliostats. “We are very
excited about this project for
BrightSource,” says Cathcart. He adds
that Bechtel’s skill sets here have drawn
from expertise learned on Bechtel solar
projects in the past and will help propel
the company to new Renewable projects
in the future. “We are completing a small
photovoltaic project now and are working
to win a few larger ones as well as a couple
of wind projects early this year,” he
adds. He says that this division’s focus
will likely be on solar and wind in North
America for the immediate future but that
the division is also looking at bio-mass
projects and will selectively pursue
renewables projects overseas.
MANAGEMENT STYLE
Asked about his management style,
Cathcart says he is especially focused on
people. “Bechtel is rightly known for project
focus, effective procedures and
processes, and the ability to manage complexity,”
he says. “Now we’re extending
our culture to broader levels of collaboration
and accountability. By this I mean
both inward-focused and outwardfocused.
I believe we can do better at collaborating
with customers, partners, and
suppliers to deliver the quality products
and services for which Bechtel is well
known. I am a firm believer that if we can
focus on driving a culture that will motivate
discretionary performance within
the Power business it will benefit our customers,
the industry, and ourselves. I
want to instill a culture where people
want to exceed expectations with the
quality of our work, to where everyone is
standing tall and wants to be accountable
for their part of what we offer to clients. I
don’t believe in pointing fingers. I think
that if there are challenges, people will
stand up and be more accountable for
solving them.”
SUMMING UP
Cathcart is convinced that the energy
appetite of the United States in the
foreseeable future will best be satisfied
with a mix of fuels: solid fossil fuel, natural
gas, nuclear, and renewables. The
same goes for markets overseas, where
he hopes to spread and diversify the
Bechtel brand. And he is determined
Bechtel will be ready for any power skill
set required. “We won’t let our resources
in any one field atrophy,” he says. “We
are ready and we will be ready for any
opportunity.” |