GENERAL_ASPECTS_OF_ENERGY_MANAGEMENT_AND_ENERGY_AUDIT
(CHAPTER 8:PROJECT MANAGEMENT)
What is a Project?
A project is a “temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service”.
Projects are temporary because they have a definite beginning and a definite end. They are unique because the product or service they create is different in some distinguishing way from similar products or services.
Designing, installation and commissioning of a cogeneration system in an industry is an example of a project. The unique work is defined by the cogeneration system and has a specific beginning and end. A project manager is responsible for the project, overseeing the contractors and managing the schedule and budget.
Projects are means for change. Such change can be sought or it can be resisted. Changing practices or investing money for energy efficiency is an occurrence of change. Fortunately, energy related projects generally have low risk attached to both the means of achieving change and result of that change. The energy manager should seek opportunities to save energy and aim to influence all projects in which energy is a significant factor. It may be that, in the early stages, an energy benefit will add to the arguments in favour of the project. Investment in energy efficiency is also good publicity news that can be given to customers and media.
Project management is a set of principles, methods, and techniques that people use to effectively plan and control project work. Project management principles and techniques help complete projects on schedule, within budget, and in full conformance to project specifications. At the same time, they help achieve the other goals of the organization, such as productivity, quality, and cost effectiveness.
The objective of project management is to optimize project cost, time, and quality.
Project Development Cycle (PDC)
The various steps in the PDC are:
1. Project Identification and Screening
2. Technical Design
3. Financing
4. Contracting
5. Implementation
6. Performance Monitoring
Project Identification and Screening
The first step in the project development cycle is to identify components of the project. Projects may be identified both internally and externally:
1.Internal identification takes place when the facility manger identifies a package of energy saving opportunities during the day-to-day energy management activities, or from detailed energy audits.
2.External identification of energy savings can occur through systematic energy audits undertaken by areputable energy management consultant, energy service company or industry organization.
In screening projects, the following criteria should be used to rank project opportunities:
1.Economic feasibility of energy savings measures (Internal rate of return, net present value, cash flow, average payback)
2.Sustainability of the savings over the life of the equipment.
3.Ease of quantifying, monitoring, and verifying energy savings.
4.Availability of technology, and ease of adaptability of the technology to Indian conditions.
5.Other environmental and social cost benefits (such as reduction in GHG emissions and local pollutants such as SO. emissions)
Technical Design
For a project to be considered a viable investment, the project proponent must present a sound technical feasibility study that identifies the following elements in detail:
* The proposed new technologies, process modifications, equipment replacements and other measures included in the project.
* Product/technology/material supply chain (e.g., locally available, imported, reliability of supply)
* Any special technical difficulties (installation, maintenance, repair), associated skills required.
* Preliminary designs, including schematics, for all major equipment needed, along with design requirements, manufacturer’s name and contact details, and capital cost estimate.
* Organizational and management plan for implementation, including timetable, personnel requirements, staff training, project engineering, and other logistical issues.
Financing
When considering a new project, it should be remembered that other departments in the organization would be competing for capital for their projects. However, it is also important to realize that energy efficiency is a major consideration in all types of projects, whether they are:
1.Projects designed to improve energy efficiency
2.Projects where energy efficiency is not the main objective, but still plays a vital role.
Most organization reaches the point when all the obvious measures to save energy have been taken and capital investment is needed to make further savings. Low cost measures for saving energy, which can be treated as mini projects in their own rights, should be given top priority. It is necessary to ensure that the present system is operating efficiently before spending any money.
If all the projects in a portfolio of applications to top management are within the policy and the procedures of the organization, then the one chosen for approval is likely to be the one, which gives the best return on the investment, and which is best presented. Many organizations have a priority list which gives preference to capital expenditure on projects offering certain advantages or removing particular disadvantages.
Project funds can be obtained from either internal or external sources.
Internal sources include:
Direct cash provision from company reserves
¢ Revenue budget (if payback is less than one year)
¢ New share capital
External sources of funds include:
¢ Bank loans
¢ Leasing arrangement
¢ Payment by savings i.e. a deal arranged with equipment supplier
e Energy services contract
¢ Private finance initiative
Before applying for project fund, all the options for funding the project are discussed with finance managers. Often, energy savings improve viability of non-energy projects.
The availability of external funds depends on the nature of your organization. The finance charges on the money borrowed will have an impact on the validity of the project.
If outside financing is sought for an energy management project, it may be obtained from a private bank, or from one of the special financing programs offered by national development banks and other funding agencies. In addition to the usual information on company assets and lines of credit, financial agencies will require an assessment of the financial feasibility of the proposed project. This should include a fully specified pro forma financial worksheet that presents project cash flows, net present value, and internal rate of return.
Contracting
Since a substantial portion of a project is typically executed through contracts, the proper management of contracts is critical to the successful implementation of the project. In this context, the following should be taken care.
1.The competence and capability of all the contractors must be ensured-one weak link can affect the timely performance of the contract.
2.Proper discipline must be inculcated among contractors and suppliers by insisting that they should develop realistic and detailed resource and time plans that are matching with the project plan.
3. Penalties-which may be graduated-must be imposed for failure to meet contractual obligations. Likewise, incentives may be offered for good performance.
4. Help should be extended to contractors and suppliers when they have genuine problems-they should be regarded as partners in a common pursuit.
5. Project authorities must retain independence to off-load contracts (partially or wholly) to other parties well in time where delays are anticipated.
If the project is to be implemented by an outside contractor, several types of contract may be used to undertake the installation and commissioning:
Traditional Contract: All project specifications are provided to a contractor who buys and installs equipment at fixed price or cost plus a mark-up. Also called as fixed-price or lump sum contract, the contractor takes the risk of unforeseen problems in exchange for a larger profit. This type of contract is appropriate when dealing with unknown vendors or when project manager anticipates the work is risky.
Extended Technical Guarantee/Service: The contract offers extended guarantees on the performance of selected equipment, and/or offers service/maintenance agreements.
Extended Financing Terms: The contractor provides the option of an extended lease or other financing vehicle in which the payment schedule can be based on the expected savings.
Guaranteed Saving Performance Contract: All or part of savings is guaranteed by the contractor, and all or part of the costs of equipment and/or services is paid down out of savings as they are achieved.
Shared Savings Performance Contract: The contractor provides the financing and is paid an agreed fraction of actual savings as they are achieved. This payment is used to pay down the debt costs of equipment and/or services.
Implementation
A great deal of the emphasis in the planning stage of any project is on understanding where and when problems may occur. Many projects introduced by energy managers end up as some other manager’s responsibility, e.g. a production manager or a works engineer. The following needs to be thought ahead and anticipated.
¢ Type and extent of measurements needed to control and measure the success of the project
¢ Winning the confidence and cooperation of key personnel involved.
¢ Timely and frequent communication between participants.
With proper techniques, changes and modifications in project can be understood and incorporated without loss of control. Before considering the components of a plan, its purpose must be defined. A plan turns a proposed project into reality. As reality often differs from theory, the plan should consider as many technical, financial and other ‘what ifs’ as possible.
Performance Monitoring
In order to keep a tab on the progress of the project, a system of monitoring must be established. This helps in:
¢ Anticipating deviations from the implementation plan
¢ Analyzing emerging problems
¢ Taking corrective action
In developing a system of monitoring, the following points must be borne in mind:
¢ It should focus sharply on the critical aspects of project implementation.
¢ It must lay more emphasis on physical milestones and not on financial targets.
¢ Monitoring must be kept simple.
Project Review
Once the project is commissioned the review phase has to be set in motion. Performance review should be done periodically to compare actual performance with projected performance. A feedback device, it is useful in several ways:
a) It throws light on how realistic were the assumptions underlying the project
b) It provides a documented log of experience that is highly valuable in future decision making
c) It suggests corrective action to be taken in the light of actual performance
d) It helps in uncovering judgmental biases
Project Planning Techniques
To achieve control of a project, it is necessary to plan. For more complex projects, the more advanced
planning methods are needed. Many project management software packages are available with detailed
operational manuals.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the process of dividing complex projects to simpler and manageable tasks. The project managers use this method for simplifying the project execution. In WBS, much larger tasks are broken down to manageable chunks of work. These chunks can be easily supervised and estimated.
First main deliverable of a project is identified and then the higher levels tasks are broken into smaller chunks of work. In the process of breaking down the tasks, one can break them down into different levels of detail. The level of breakdown detail depends upon project type and the management style followed for the project. WBS can be displayed using tree structure or list or tables.
WBS is developed before dependencies are identified and activity durations are estimated. The WBS can be used to identify the tasks before constructing Gantt chart and networks such as Critical Path Method -CPM and Program Evaluation and Review Technique- PERT.
Gantt chart
During the era of scientific management, Henry Gantt developed a tool for displaying the progress of a project in the form of a specialized chart. An early application was the tracking of the progress of ship building projects. Today, Gantt’s scheduling tool takes the form of a horizontal bar graph and is known as a Gantt chart.
Gantt chart is now commonly used for scheduling the tasks and tracking the progress of energy management projects. Gantt charts are developed using bars to represent each task. The length of the bar shows how long the task is expected to take to complete. The duration is easily shown on Gantt charts.
A basic sample for a pumping station is shown in Figure 8.1. The horizontal axis of the Gantt chart is a time scale, expressed either in absolute time or in relative time referenced to the beginning of the project. The time resolution depends on the project - the time unit typically is in weeks or months. Rows of bars in the chart show the beginning and ending dates of the individual tasks in the project.
Limitation of Gantt chart
The Gantt chart does not normally show the logical interdependencies between the predecessor and successor activities very well. Such requirements are best served by the network diagram, which shows logic clearly but does not have a time scale axis like the Gantt chart.
Gantt Chart Enhancement
This basic version of the Gantt chart often is enhanced to communicate more information.
1.A vertical marker can used to mark the present point in time (If a vertical line is drawn through a given day, the activities that are scheduled to be taking place simultaneously will have the line pass through them. In this way the need for simultaneous resources can clearly be seen).
2.The progression of each activity may be shown by shading the bar as progress is made, allowing the status of each activity to be known with just a glance.
3. Dependencies can be depicted using link lines or color codes.
4.Resource allocation can be specified for each task.
5. Milestones can be shown.
Project Networking Techniques
Project network shows dependency relationships between tasks/activities in a project in a graphical view. It shows clearly tasks that must precede or succeed other tasks in a logical manner. It is a powerful tool for planning and controlling project
Network Definitions
Activity: Any portions of project (tasks) which required by project, uses up resource and consumes time.
Event: Beginning or ending points of one or more activities are called ‘nodes’
Network: Combination of all project activities and the events
Two ways of representing activities are activity-on-arrow (AOA) and activity-on-node (AON).
Activity-on-arrow (AOA) is represented by the activities on arrows which are connected at events (nodes shown as circles) to show the dependencies (preceding or succeeding) as shown in Figure 8.2.
Activity-on-node (AON) is represented as nodes on the network and events that signify the beginning or ending of activities are depicted as arcs or lines between the nodes as shown in Figure 8.3. This method is used in project management software packages.
CPM provides the following benefits:
¢ Provides a graphical view of the project.
¢ Predicts the time required to complete the project.
¢ Shows which activities are critical to maintaining the schedule and which are not.
Steps in CPM Project Planning
1.Specify the individual activities.
2.Determine the sequence of those activities.
3.Draw a network diagram.
4.Estimate the completion time for each activity.
5.Identify the critical path (longest path through the network)
6.Update the CPM diagram as the project progresses.
1. Specify the Individual Activities
From the work breakdown structure, list the activities in the project. The project (made up of several tasks) should have only a single start activity and a single finish activity.
2. Determine the Sequence of the Activities
Develop the relationship among the activities. Decide which activities must precede and which must follow others.
3. Draw the Network Diagram
Draw the “Network” once all the activities and their sequencing have been defined. Network diagram originally was developed as an activity on node (AON) network, but some project planners prefer to specify the activities on the arrow.
4. Estimate Activity Completion Time
Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity using past experience or the estimates of knowledgeable persons.
CPM is a deterministic model that does not take into account variation in the completion time, so one fixed time is used for an activity.
5. Identify the Critical Path
The critical path is the longest-duration path through the network. The significance of the critical path is that the activities that lie on it cannot be delayed without delaying the project. Because of its impact on the entire project, critical path analysis is an important aspect of project planning.
The critical path can be identified by determining the following four parameters for each activity:
1.ES - Earliest start time: the earliest time at which the activity can start given that its precedent activities must be completed first.
2. EF - Earliest finish time: equal to the earliest start time for the activity plus the time required to complete the activity.
3. LF - Latest finish time: the latest time at which the activity can be completed without delaying the project.
4.LS - Latest start time, equal to the latest finish time minus the time required to complete the activity.
The total float (slack time) for an activity is the time between its earliest and latest start time, or between its earliest and latest finish time. Slack is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed past its earliest start or earliest finish without delaying the project.
The critical path is the path through the project network in which none of the activities have slack, that is, the path for which ES=LS and EF=LF for all activities in the path. A delay in the critical path delays the project. Similarly, to accelerate the project it is necessary to reduce the total time required for the activities in the critical path.
6. Update CPM Diagram
As the project progresses, the actual task completion times will be known and the network diagram can be updated to include this information. A new critical path may emerge, and structural changes may be made in the network if project requirements change.
Example 8.1: Illustration of CPM
WBS of a project is given in Table 8.2.
The information in WBS indicates that the total time required to complete activities is 51 weeks. However, it can be seen from the network that several of the activities can be conducted simultaneously (A and B, for example). It is necessary to calculate critical path of the network.
Earliest Start Time and Earliest Finish Time
We can do a forward pass calculations. Starting at the network’s origin (node 1) and using a starting time of 0, we compute an earliest start (ES) and earliest finish (EF) time for each activity in the network. The expression EF = ES + t can be used to find the earliest finish time for a given activity. The completion time or the duration of an activity is represented as t.
For example, for activity A, ES = 0 and t = 5; thus the earliest finish time for activity Ais EF =0+ 5 = 5. Refer Figure 8.4.
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