Redevelopment of a Small Town and Facilities - Example

Redevelopment of a small town and facilities Table of Contents Brief overview of the project 3 2.Project Scope 3 2 Project Objectives 3 2.2. Deliverables 3 2.3. Milestones 4 2.4. Technical Requirements 4 2.5. Limits 5 3.Project Priorities 6 3.1. Scope 6 3.2. Time 6 3.3. Cost 6 3.4. Quality 6 4.Work Breakdown Structure 7 7 5. Estimation of Project Costs 8 6. Project Network Diagram 8 7. Project Gantt chart 9 8. Project Risk Management 9 9. Project Performance Measurement and evaluation 9 11. Project Closure 10 Reference List 11 Appendix 12 Project framework table 12 1. Brief overview of the project The project involves the installation of solar cell powered street lights over a stretch of 2.2 km in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, London, United Kingdom. This project endeavours to redevelop the town’s lighting system which will be powered by solar cells which in turn will ensure that the town becomes environmentally sustainable. The installation programme will be commenced with proper assistance from a partner company that is primarily engaged in providing solar cell installation solutions. The solar cell enabled street lighting initiative comes as a proposition as well as a direction provided by the UK government in order to implement sustainable renewable energy projects. Projects like these are designed in order to reduce the amount of carbon emission as well reduce the environmental impact in the vicinity. The same has been the objective of the UK government, who in turn directed the London Borough County to prepare a project plan highlighting the scope of this project, the priorities, the work breakdown structure, estimated cost and estimated life time. 2. Project Scope 2.1. Project Objectives The fundamental objective of this project is to install solar cells powered streetlights within a stretch of 2.2 km in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in order to curtail the cost incurred by the UK Government for grid electricity supply. The solar cells are supposed to retain energy during the day following which it will act as an energy source for the street lights during the need. Therefore, not only is this project aiming to curtail grid electricity cost but to create a sustainable source of power which in turn will help the government to conserve energy as well as reduce carbon emissions. 2.2. Deliverables It is expected that after the completion of this project 204 solar powered street lights will be up and about in full potential, lightening up a locality in the borough of Kingston upon Thames. Installation of these lights is supposed to reduce the cost of grid electricity supply for the London Borough County by a drastic margin. Given the fact that the street lights to be used are LED Incon lights having wattage of 160W, the power consumption power day of one street light without a solar cell would have been 0.16*24 KWh, which is equal to a per day consumption of 3.16 KWh (PowerSines, 2014). Therefore, it is expected that one such light would have consumed 1153.4 KWh in a year. Provided that 204 street lights will be installed, there combined consumption without a solar cell would have been close to 235923.6 KWh. The average cost of electricity in the UK for every KWh of power consumption is £14.2 which has been aggregated from the price charged by different energy service providers in the country (CompareMySolar Ltd, 2012). Therefore, a combined consumption of 204 160W street lights without a solar cell would have cost the government a staggering amount of £3350115.12 in a year. The facts mentioned in this section implies that this project, if approved and conducted, would enable the government to conserve up to 235923.6 KWh of energy and save an expenditure of nearly 3 million pounds. 2.3. Milestones The project will be proportionately distributed over 4 intervals. The first interval which involves mostly documentation of the project has already been completed within a month starting from 18th August. The second interval which mainly revolves around the preparation of the project plan has already begun and is expected to finish within a span of another month. Upon conclusion of this interval, the proposal will be sent for approval which may take close to three weeks for complete supervision and assessment. Following the approval of the project, the execution of the same is set to be initiated from 15th December 2014. It is anticipated that installation of 204 solar power street lights will take a little over 2 months. The fourth and the final interval involve project follow up where the project manager and other members of the team would take up the responsibility to keep track of the performance of the street lights. The follow up phase will be continued for the next two months where the follow up team will be surveying the local residents regarding their thoughts on the installation of the nee street lights. Their feedbacks will be taken into consideration in order to bring about any further developments of the system. 2.4. Technical Requirements As far as technical requirements are concerned, they are of extreme importance for this particular project. The project managers have to ensure the materials are of superior quality. Moreover, they have to make sure that the raw materials arrive in the right quantitative, at the right place and at the right time. The materials required for this project has to have the right specifications as specified by the engineers and technicians. The technical requirements along with their specification have been provided in details below: Product type Name Quantity Batteries Trojan deep-cycle 8D VRLA batteries 408 Solar Modules Incon solar modules 245W 204 Lights LED Incon lights 160W 204 Charge Controllers Phocos charge controllers 204 Mounting Light poles 204 Monitoring System OEC monitoring system 1 2.5. Limits There are a number of limitations associated with this project. First of all the availability of workforce becomes a big problem during the festive season which starts from the 24th of December this year. This is precisely because a majority of workers are on holiday during that period of time. These factors have the propensity to delay the project by drastic margin. However, optimum efforts will be given in order to make up for the delays that may occur. Another limitation of this project is the fact that the installation of the solar power enabled street lights are being conducted with the help of a partner company (specialized in such installation) who is relatively new in this field. The company will also be responsible for delivery of the raw materials as well as the installation of the lights. Given the fact that the company is relatively inexperienced as far as handling projects of such magnitude is concerned, there is a probability that the raw materials and the installation service would not be of optimum quality. In addition to this, another major limitation that has come up front in this project concerns the traffic. The frequency of traffic within the stretch that is being redeveloped is considerably high. This makes it difficult for the engineers to prepare road blocks or diversions. One problem with setting up a diversion is that the next possible diverting route may require a person to travel an extra 8 km to continue the journey after the 2.2 km stretch is over. This becomes very convenient on the part of civilians which are why the idea of a diversion is negated. Engineers have to do their best only with the help of partial road obstructions which might delay their work even further. They also run the risk of being injured while working in a stretch that experiences huge traffic. 3. Project Priorities 3.1. Scope Two of the major problems that have been encountered in majority of countries are depleting sources of energy and rising level of carbon emissions. Therefore in order to restore the balance in nature world leaders have been availing different options so as to reduce energy consumption by switching to renewable sources of energy as well as bring down the level of carbon emission. It is with regards to this fact that that the UK government came up with the plan to install 204 solar cells powered street lamps in the Royal Borough of Kingston in order to redevelop the place as a green town where attaining environmental sustainability is the fundamental agenda. 3.2. Time The execution stage of this project is set to begin from 15th December 2014. The overall documentation of the project and its approval will take close to 2 months. The maximum timeframe set for this project upon commencement is four months considering any form of delays that may occur. Given that there are no delays or obstructions during the execution phase, the project is expected to complete by end February with the follow up stage beginning at the first week of March. 3.3. Cost Cost is arguably the most important factor that is to be taken into consideration when it comes to planning a project. That is why the distribution of estimated costs for each and every part of the project needs to be outlined appropriately. In order to explain the cost to be incurred during the operational life of this project, a project budget plan will be prepared and will be subsequently presented in the section to follow. 3.4. Quality In order to ensure that the project deliverables are of superior quality, the entire project will be conducted over a solid foundation laid by a robust quality control framework. The project manager will be largely responsible for making sure that each and every activity is in complete compliance with the regulations stipulated within the framework (Evans and Lindsay, 2011). A quality management team will also be appointed who would be mainly responsible for assisting the project managers in their quest to enhance the quality of the project deliverables (Kleijnen, et al., 2011). Benchmarking and cost benefit analysis are two quality management tools that will be used in order to compare if the cost incurred in this project for the fulfilment is equivalent to the benefits that are expected to be accrued (Shah, 2000). Benchmarking will also help the quality management team to ensure that the project deliverables meet the expected standard (Evans, 2011). 4. Work Breakdown Structure   5. Estimation of Project Costs Activities FY1 FY2   Labour Material Other FY Total Labour Material Other FY Total Develop Project Charter $55,400 $0 $0 $55,400 $0 $0 $0 $0 Develop Project Control Plan $300,000 $0 $0 $300,000 $0 $0 $0 $50,000 Raw materials $0 $2,550,000 $200,000 $2,750,000 $0 $1,500,000 $0 $1,500,000 Installation $500,000 $0 $150,000 $650,000 $350,000 $0 $75,000 $425,000 Monitor performance $0 $0 $0 $0 $100,000 $0 $0 $300,000 Total $855,400 $2,550,000 $350,000 $3,755,400 $450,000 $1,500,000 $75,000 $2,275,000 Total Project Budget $6,030,400 6. Project Network Diagram (Source: Author’s creation) 7. Project Gantt chart (Source: Author’s creation) 8. Project Risk Management Risk measurement and management is a very integral part of this project in order to ensure that proper contingency plans are in place which can tackle any potential barrier during the project life cycle (Dale, Van Der Wiele and Van Iwaarden, 2013). As far as a project of this magnitude is concerned which involves complex design and rigours activities at every interval, it will always be associated with some form of risk. For example, one of the risks associated with this project is the delivery of inferior quality of raw materials. In this case one of the risk measurement strategies that need to be adopted is to make sure that the raw materials are certified by an internationally recognised standard such as ISO. This is precisely because the products that are certified by a standard are associated with minimum error and superior quality (ISO, 2013). One of the major risk management tools that needs to be implemented for the purpose of this project is scheduled meeting directed towards risk assessment (Kerzner, 2013). The meeting will mainly involve key members of the management who will largely responsible for assessing the risk as well as evaluating the efficiency of the risk management strategies. 9. Project Performance Measurement and evaluation In order to measure and evaluate project performance the performance management team will be reviewing every minute detail associated with the project. They will be primarily responsible for verifying whether each and every activity was completed within the stipulated deadline or not. In that way they will be able to quantify the overall throughput of the project (Levin, 2014). Moreover they will also be responsible for evaluating the efficiency with which each and every personal complete the responsibility assigned to them. The analysis will be based over a performance benchmark that will initially set by the performance management team itself. 11. Project Closure This particular phase will involve a follow up of the project where the project review team will be checking on the performance of the deliverables. They will be collecting evidences regarding the performance of the street lights from the local residents in order to seek their valuable opinion which could be taken into consideration while bring about any further improvements. Reference List Brennan, J. and Shah, T., 2000. Quality assessment and institutional change: experiences from 14 countries. Higher Education, 40(3), pp. 331-349. CompareMySolar Ltd, 2012. Electricity Price per kWh – Comparison of Big Six Energy Companies. [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 September 2014]. Dale, B. G., Van Der Wiele, T. and Van Iwaarden, J., 2013. Managing quality. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Evans, J. R. and Lindsay, W. M. 2011. The Management and Control of Quality. 8th edition. Cincinnati: South Western Cengage Learning. Evans, J. R., 2011. Quality management, organization and strategy. 6th edition. Cincinnati: South Western Cengage Learning. ISO, 2013. Benefits of International Standards. [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 September 2014]. Kerzner, H. R., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Kleijnen, J., Dolmans, D., Willems, J. and Van Hout, H., 2011. Does internal quality management contribute to more control or to improvement of higher education? A survey on faculty’s perceptions. Quality Assurance in Education, 19(2), pp. 141-155. Levin, G., 2014. Project Quality Management: Why, What and How. Project Management Journal, 45(5), pp. 3. PowerSines, 2014. Power Consumption of Street Lighting in Cork County Ireland. [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 September 2014]. Appendix Project framework table Project Title: Redevelopment of a small town and facilities – Solar powered street lights. Project Description: The project involves installation of solar cell powered Led street lamps which will provide a sustainable renewable energy source and reduce carbon emission. Begin Date: 15th December 2014 End date: 27th February 2014 The context: Two of the major problems that have been encountered in majority of countries are depleting sources of energy and rising level of carbon emissions. Therefore in order to restore the balance in nature world leaders have been availing different options so as to reduce energy consumption by switching to renewable sources of energy as well as bring down the level of carbon emission. It is with regards to this fact that that the UK government came up with the plan to install 204 solar cells powered street lamps in the Royal Borough of Kingston in order to redevelop the place as a green town where attaining environmental sustainability is the fundamental agenda. The fundamental objective of this project is to install solar cells powered streetlights within a stretch of 2.2 km in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in order to curtail the cost incurred by the UK Government for grid electricity supply. The solar cells are supposed to retain energy during the day following which it will act as an energy source for the street lights during the need. Therefore, not only is this project aiming to curtail grid electricity cost but to create a sustainable source of power which in turn will help the government to conserve energy as well as reduce carbon emissions. Project deliverables: It is expected that after the completion of this project 204 solar powered street lights will be up and about in full potential, lightening up a locality in the borough of Kingston upon Thames. Installation of these lights is supposed to reduce the cost of grid electricity supply for the London Borough County by a drastic margin. Given the fact that the street lights to be used are LED Incon lights having wattage of 160W, the power consumption power day of one street light without a solar cell would have been 0.16*24 KWh, which is equal to a per day consumption of 3.16 KWh (PowerSines, 2014). Therefore, it is expected that one such light would have consumed 1153.4 KWh in a year. Provided that 204 street lights will be installed, there combined consumption without a solar cell would have been close to 235923.6 KWh. The average cost of electricity in the UK for every KWh of power consumption is £14.2 which has been aggregated from the price charged by different energy service providers in the country (CompareMySolar Ltd, 2012). Therefore, a combined consumption of 204 160W street lights without a solar cell would have cost the government a staggering amount of £3350115.12 in a year. The facts mentioned in this section implies that this project, if approved and conducted, would enable the government to conserve up to 235923.6 KWh of energy and save an expenditure of nearly 3 million pounds. The main risks: Inferior quality raw materials, installation delays, difficulty in setting up road blocks. Stakeholders: Local residents, project sponsors, the government, steering committee. Project limitations: There are a number of limitations associated with this project. First of all the availability of workforce becomes a big problem during the festive season which starts from the 24th of December this year. This is precisely because a majority of workers are on holiday during that period of time. These factors have the propensity to delay the project by drastic margin. However, optimum efforts will be given in order to make up for the delays that may occur. Another limitation of this project is the fact that the installation of the solar power enabled street lights are being conducted with the help of a partner company (specialized in such installation) who is relatively new in this field. The company will also be responsible for delivery of the raw materials as well as the installation of the lights. Given the fact that the company is relatively inexperienced as far as handling projects of such magnitude is concerned, there is a probability that the raw materials and the installation service would not be of optimum quality. In addition to this, another major limitation that has come up front in this project concerns the traffic. The frequency of traffic within the stretch that is being redeveloped is considerably high. This makes it difficult for the engineers to prepare road blocks or diversions. One problem with setting up a diversion is that the next possible diverting route may require a person to travel an extra 8 km to continue the journey after the 2.2 km stretch is over. This becomes very convenient on the part of civilians which are why the idea of a diversion is negated. Engineers have to do their best only with the help of partial road obstructions which might delay their work even further. They also run the risk of being injured while working in a stretch that experiences huge traffic. Project Milestones: Highlighted appropriately in the Gantt chart. Read More