Abstract
M.Ing. (Engineering Management)
The energy sector in South Africa has experienced major shortfalls in meeting the country’s energy demands. This lack of generating capacity is attributed to delays in the approval of new infrastructure and the increase in the country’s economic growth between the years 1994 and 2007 [1]. The electricity producer Eskom Holdings SOC (State Owned Company) Limited, has since implemented initiatives that are aimed to address the energy supply shortfalls.
One such initiative is the refurbishment of the existing operational fleet of coal fired power stations. The overall intention of this initiative being to extend plant operating life, improve reliability and availability as well as to align these assets to current safety standards. The operating life of power stations often resides between forty to fifty years. Within this lifecycle instrumentation & control (I&C) upgrades are planned and executed to secure the continued reliable operation of the generating assets. These projects often entail the full upgrade or refurbishment of the power station’s process control system [2].
The research identifies the critical success factors to be considered for I&C projects rolled out within the energy generating sector in South Africa. The study is established on a comprehensive literature review that provides insight into the South African energy industry, I&C environment and business architectural framework processes. The review covers the spectrum of people, plant and processes and sheds light onto the critical success factors (CSFs) to be considered during the different project phases.
The identified CSFs are used to formulate the framework of a survey distributed amongst key stakeholders from the operating, engineering, maintenance and project management fraternity. The results of the survey is analysed to identify the relevant CSFs across the different project phases. An insight into the organisation’s change management maturity is provided by evaluating the identified CSFs with those established through the literature review. The research work concludes with the proposal of CSFs for I&C projects within the power generation industry and provides recommendations for future studies.