PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Kamuthi Solar Power Project

SUBMITTED BY:

GROUP: 4 | SECTION: B
ABHISHEK KUMAR (110064)
ESHA PRIYA (110079)
KUMARI SNEHA (110084)
VAIBHAV RAJ (110116)
MADHURENDRA PATHAK (100016)
Index
1. Executive summary

2. Introduction

3. Objectives

4. Project objectives

5. Project scope

6. Milestones

7. Project approach

8. Responsibility matrix

9. Scheduling

10. Resources

11. Project cost

12. Project risk analysis

13. Recommendations

14. Tracking progress

15. Conclusion

16. References

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Executive Summary
The main purpose of this project activity is to generate clean form of electricity through

renewable solar energy source for sale of electricity to the grid. Adani Group is the promoter

of the proposed project activity and is the holding company of both the project investors in

this project activity.

This project “Kamuthi Solar Power Project” outlines WBS of pre- construction, installation,

inspection and post inspection. It also includes resources, work force and certain cost

associated with developing this project. The solar panels, inverters and robotic system to

clean solar panels without the use of water were procured from 8 different countries, i.e:

Germany, Italy, Israel, China, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey and Switzerland.

The project activity involves installation of 648 MWp solar power project in Tamil Nadu.

The project started in the month of July 2019 aiming to setup 2.5 million solar plants in the

Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu to produce renewable energy that will be supplied to

the national grid, lighting more than 350,000 homes within next 8 months. It also involves

various quality management techniques which includes the pull out test for the piles to make

sure it remains intact in case of any natural calamity, installation of SCADA system, lead by

ABB team.

It’s December 2019 and the project is in construction phase. Now it has become a huge

challenge for the Adani Group to finish the project on time as it is currently raining night and

day at Ramanathapuram already taken the shape of flood due to which the work at the plant is

currently stopped. It has been forecasted that it will rain throughout whole December,

breaking the record of previous 100 years.

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Introduction
Kamuthi Solar Power Project is a photovoltaic power station spread over an area of 2,500

acres (10 km2) in Kamuthi, Ramanathapuram district, 90 km from Madurai, in the state

of Tamil Nadu, India. The project was commissioned by Adani Power. With a generating

capacity of 648 MWp at a single location, it will be going to be world's eleventh largest solar

park based on capacity.

ABB commissioned five sub-stations to connect the solar park with the National Grid on 13

June 2019. The Kamuthi Solar Power Project is estimated to be completed by 31st March

2019 with an investment of around ₹4,550 crore (equivalent to ₹49 billion or US$710 million

in 2018). The solar plant consists of 2.5 million solar modules, 380,000 foundations, 27,000

metres of structures, 576 inverters, 154 transformers, and almost 6,000 km of

cables. Construction of the structures needed to mount the solar panels required 30,000

tonnes of galvanised steel.

The entire solar park is connected to a 400 kV substation of the Tamil Nadu Transmission

Corp. The solar panels are cleaned daily by a self-charged robotic system.

Given the solar resource of around 2100 kWh/(m2*yr) an annual generation of 1.35 TWh/yr

may be possible. This corresponds to a capacity factor (or average power) of 24% of the peak

capacity 648 MWp. Assuming a technical life time of 25 years the investment cost is

700 MUSD/(25*1.35 TWh) = 2 US cent/kWh.

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Objectives:
The objectives of a solar power plant project could be numerous. It mainly aims to:

• Improve the standard of life and alleviate rural impoverishment within the un-

energized and off-grid areas by providing the four basic desires like lights, education,

recreation, and communication through the cheap and reliable supply of energy - star.

• Promote the utilization of property, economic and least-cost localized electrification

solutions for areas not possible for grid connection/extension in partnership with the

government units, semi-private and personal sectors.

• Increase productivity, promote support and social interaction within the community

by extending their time at the hours of darkness.

• Apply solar power technology because of the enabling technology for property

development.

Project objective:

The objective of this project is to provide 648 MW of renewable and clean energy to 350,000

houses of Tamil Nadu in 240 dayes, i.e. 8 months at any cost.

Group objective:

As it’s raining night and day in Tamil Nadu, the project currently is at halt (December 2019).

The group objective is to find measures with which the company could be able to complete

the project meeting deadline.

Project Scope:

The solar power plant will consist of:

• 2.5 million, i.e. 25 lakhs solar modules

• 380,000 foundations

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 • 27000 meters of structures made from 30,000 tonnes of galvanised steel

• 576 inverters

• 154 transformers for the grid

• 6000 km of cables

• 8500 workers

• Approvals

Milestones

A project milestone is a task of zero duration that shows an important achievement in a

project. The milestones should represent a clear sequence of events that incrementally

build up until your project is complete. The project will only be successful if there will

be desired occupancy rate and will reflect in profit earned. The project is to be

completed in 240 days. Based on Adani Group’s estimated time it takes to complete

tasks, the progress milestones associated with this project are:

• Project management (Planning)- 01-06-2019

• Pre-construction- 29-06-2019

• Procurement (Phase 1)- 10-08-2019

• Installation (Phase 1)- 24-09-2019

• Water Discharge- 07-11-19

• Procurement (Phase 2)- 07-11-2019

• Installation (Phase 2)- 24-12-2019

• Inspection- 27-01-2020

• Post Inspection (Documentation)- 03-03-2020

Project Approach

The company after planning, approached this project by looking for huge sum of land at one

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single location. According to the plans, Adani group needed to procure 2500 acres of land,

prone to sunlight, having ease of transportation for procurement of raw materials. The search

for the company ended 90 km away from Madhurai, in the district of Ramanathapuram, at

Kamuthi. It was appropriate and was meeting all the requirements:

• The land was barren

• The location had the highest radiation at peak hours of afternoon

• The port was closer to the location so transportation facility was also available.

The company started to procure machinery and all the materials and equipments required for

setting up the plant from different countries. The site ground was leveled and the installation

of piles & modules was started. Simultaneously the micro-inverters were getting installed for

which 144 pre-engineered building were made. By the end of October there was only 178

days remaining for the deadline but the team had hardly managed to installed solar panels to

generate only 1.6 MW of power though the target was of 90MW.

The work is expected to start by the end of December and the company would have to

install enough solar panels to generate 13 MW of power each day to meet the deadline.

Responsibility Matrix

Table 1. Responsibility Matrix

Functions Abhishek Esha Priya Kumari Vaibhav Madhurendra

Kumar Sneha Raj Pathak

Executive S S A A A

Summary

Objectives S A S S A

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Project Scope A S S A S

Milestones A A A S S

Project Approach A S A A A

WBS S S S A A

Project Costing S S A A S

Project Risk A A S S S

Analysis

Recommendations A S S A A

Conclusion S A A A S

*A = Allotted

*S = Supported

The resources in Table 1 include human resources and non-human resources necessary to

complete the identified tasks. The person identified as the person responsible is the lead in

the project and is responsible for overall tasks. Tasks that do not reflect a human resource

are tasks in which the responsible person is the human resource.

Scheduling

Project scheduling is a mechanism to communicate what tasks need to get done and which

organizational resources will be allocated to complete those tasks in what timeframe. A

project schedule is a document collecting all the work needed to deliver the project on time.

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The scheduling for the installation of the project has been divided into two phases, i.e. before

flood and after flood. The scheduling has been done by taking the on time completion of the

project into consideration.

Figure 1 represents the tasks and time necessary to complete the project:

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The scheduling for installation and procurement has been divided into two parts because of

heavy rain. It has been forecasted that it will continue to rain throughout December. Major

chunk of the work is excepted to be done once the water is been discharged from the site. The

procurement for phase two is expected to start by the end of December.

There are 2500 skilled and unskilled workers having eight-hour workday, seven days

a week for the first phase of installation. But for the second phase, the work force is estimated

to get almost 3 times, i.e. around 8500 working in 3 shifts, i.e. 24 hrs./day.

Resources

Resources are required to carry out the project tasks. They can be people, equipment,

facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition (usually other than labour) required

for the completion of a project activity.

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The given figure shows the resources used in the project:

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Project Cost

The Project Costs are any expenditures made or estimated to be made, or monetary

obligations incurred or estimated to be incurred to complete the project, which are listed in a

project baseline. Due to high quality standards and prestige of company associated with the

project, also the cost that would incur to mitigate the damage done by Flood, It would cost

around Rs. 4550 crore for the completion of the project. The given figure is the cost involved.

At the begaining of the project, the cost that was estimated for the project to get

complete was Rs. 4536 crore but due to heavy rainfall the project got divided into two parts,

costing 14 crore extra to the company.

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Project Risk Analysis

Risk analysis is a proactive method to forecast negative events (risks) that could occur in a

project in order to be better prepared or to reduce their likelihood. There were many risks

associated with this project which we could understand using risk matrix.

Risk Matrix

Risk-tier Description

Utility company or grid Risks related to operations: not meeting

demand, brownouts, blackouts, etc.

Project Management/Development Risks that may be encountered throughout the

development of the PV project: changes in

costs, design issues, permit issues, etc.

Hardware Risks related to the hardware components of

the system: reliability

Environmental and Social Risks related to the location and surrounding

environment of the project: effect on local

habitats, weather, environmental

opposition, etc

Government Risks related to changes in governmental

policies and priorities

Recommendations

Avoid Change the project plan to eliminate the risk or to protect the project

objectives (time, cost, scope, quality) from its impact. This can be achieved

by modifying scope, adding contingency to the project plan as additional

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 time for critical path activities, or adding resources. Some threats that arise

early in the project can be avoided by clarifying requirements, obtaining

information, improving communication, or acquiring expertise.

Mitigate Reduce the probability and/or impact of an adverse risk event to an

acceptable threshold. Taking early action to reduce the probability and/or

impact of a risk is often more effective than trying to repair the damage

after the risk has occurred. Risk mitigation may take resources or time and

hence may represent a tradeoff. However, the overall result may reduce risk

to the overall project objective.

Transfer/Share Shift the negative impact of a threat to a third party through: insurance,

performance bonds, warranties, guarantees, incentive/disincentive clauses,

cost & time contracts, provided the price for the risk transfer can be

supported by project cash flow.

Transference reduces the risk only if the person to whom the risk is

transferred (such as the contractor) is better able to take steps to reduce

the risk and does so. Risk transference nearly always involves payment

of a risk premium to the party taking on the risk.

Acceptance Adopted if is either not possible to eliminate that risk from a project or the

cost in time or money of the response is not warranted by the potential

impact of the risk. The most common active acceptance strategy is to

establish a contingency reserve, including amounts of time, money, or

Resources to handle the threat or opportunity.

Tracking progress

It is three and half months left for the deadline and not even half of the work is complete.

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The company will have to follow the estimated schedule chart precisely in order to meet the

deadline. It will be a huge challenge for them as they are already working behind schedule,

generating only 1.7% MW of the goal.

Conclusion

The tasks, paths, timeline and resources are enough to define the magnitude of the project.

The Government of India aims to reach a renewable energy capacity of 175 GW by 2022.

100 GW of this is planned through solar energy, 60 GW through wind energy, 10 GW

through small hydropower, and 5 GW through biomass-based power projects.

Although the pace at which India is generating renewable energy might not be enough

to achieve target 2022 but the success of this project would definitely be a great milestone for

the programme. The Project management team must be proactive, aggressive and efficient in

each planning step and thoroughly monitor situations and execute contingency plans as issues

arise.

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