primtech empowers Folivo Power Consulting SRL

Folivo Power Consulting is a pioneer in the implementation of BIM in the design and engineering of substations - using primtech solutions in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean, making design accuracy a reality.

The strategic goal of Folivo Power Consulting:

Accompany the energy transition of the Dominican Republic by design and engineering of “Tropicalized” electrical substations, that is, considering the particularities of the environment where they are built with high quality standards and very low response times to change requests from customers.

The Challenge:

Folivo Power Consulting identified that, like other Latin American countries, the Dominican Republic has drawn up a roadmap for energy transition, with the goal of reaching 30% of installed capacity from renewable sources. This objective implies a high demand for design, engineering and construction services for electrical substations. In this context, Folivo identified several key challenges in substation projects.

One of the challenges is that many foreign investors bring standardized designs that cannot be directly applied due to local conditions such as salt pollution, strong winds or natural phenomena. As a result, these designs require homologation processes to conform to the country's technical standards, and most require modifications signed off by local engineers. Another critical challenge is the time and quality of design modifications. With experience in power system studies (power flow, short circuit, stability), Folivo observed that designs suffered delays due to manual and iterative processes that generated errors and inconsistencies, affecting project schedules. Faced with this situation, Folivo decided to enter the substation design and engineering niche, looking for a solution that would allow fast and accurate modifications, while ensuring high quality standards.

The solution

After evaluating several options, Folivo Power Consulting chose primtech 3D as the BIM authoring software for substation design. According to its manager, Franklin Olivo, the software is flexible and makes it easy to modify designs, automatically and consistently updating drawings in all views.

Currently, Folivo Power Consulting is a key supplier for generation and transmission companies that must adapt standard designs to local conditions, and thanks to primtech 3d, they respond quickly to observations, as in the case of Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica Dominicana (ETED), reducing the risk of schedule delays.

As project supervisors, they have found that with primtech the revisions are faster than those of the counterpart responsible for adjusting the designs. Today they do not understand how some companies continue to use traditional methods that consume much more time and resources for changes. With primtech the process is very simple and agile.

Among the main features that stand out of primtech solutions are the following:

Generation of a virtual Reality substation with only one click
Powerful creation of construction details in 0D, 1D, 2D and 3D.
Parametric behavior in support structures and foundations.
Database with library of more than 5000 substation components.
Brownfield tools with AI to work with point cloud.
Integrated short-circuit calculation, considering climatic conditions, such as cyclonic winds of the Caribbean, for the dimensioning of supports and foundations.
Integrated lightning protection calculation for drawing generation.

The results:

	Time reduction: Significant reduction in substation design time. While other companies in the region need 3 to 4 weeks to design a substation, Folivo Power Consulting needs one week to design a complete substation with all views.
	Powerful live verification of insulation coordination: Folivo's engineers can now sit down with the customer and verify live the insulation coordination of each substation thanks to primtech 3d's clearance verification functionality.
	Instant BOM generation: The BOM functionality, “from the initial phases to be able to break down all the materials required for the substation was a part that we were very interested in and today it is a reality with primtech” – Franklin Olivo, Manager.
	Lightning protection in hours: With the integrated lightning protection functionality, Folivo needs a couple of hours to generate the lightning protection drawings, while other companies require a couple of days for the same task.

Since we tried primtech's virtual reality, clicking the primtech DT button has become addictive.

Franklin Olivo

Managing Director

Folivo, Dominican Republic