A Project of Upgrading the Abu Dhabi Street Lighting - Research Paper Example

A Project of Upgrading the Abu Dhabi Street Lighting By (Name of the Student) Code + course Name Instructor’s Name Name of the Institution City, State Date Executive Summary A unique creation of a service or product through some temporarily planned methodology (undertaking) is what determines project management. Some of these undertakings, no matter how temporal, lead to creation and development of services which have myriad advantages to the public. In most cases, the origin of the idea to progressively manage such undertakings may be overlooked, but it is true that it takes more application of knowledge, techniques, skills, financial resources, and other tools to manage activities that would meet the expectations of the parties concerned. Lighting a street in an efficient and a well- functioning way increases quality of life, particularly in the city, by improving security at perceived personality levels and increased sense of safety levels along the streets. It also improves the standards of local environmental appearances too. In addition to that, it reduces crime rates and enables extended use of the public spaces for different economic and recreational endeavors. The expectation of the public for provision of better street lighting is always high upon the local government agencies, which are in most cases being faced by a number of challenges of environmental and social matters. A local government that provides an efficient lighting system in the public places does not therefore only receive credit but also gains a lot because its revenues will increase. This is due to the increased sense of safety that raises the levels of economic activities along the streets. Abu Dhabi is one of the cities in United Arabs Emirates, a capital, whose street lighting still has been a challenge to the local government (municipal council). The cost of lighting up the street of Abu Dhabi is highly growing at increasing rates for the municipal council due to the increasing cost of energy. Other municipality goals such as expansion of the neighborhood, maintenance and rapid replacements of the original street lights have been confirmed to very heavy cost for the municipality. Introduction Due to the combination of high costs of energy, maintenance and replacements of old street lights, and environmental issues concerning street lighting, the Abu Dhabi municipal have been forced to improvise a better lighting system of the street that would be very effective, efficient, and less costly at the same time. This paper describes an assessment of the management of the Abu Dhabi street lighting project, through evaluation of the extensive street lighting options and planned strategies that would ensure the achievement of the expected benefits. It will also assess the benefits derived from the use of the LED lights in terms of reduction of street lighting costs, high light intensities, and energy consumption. It will describe the project methodology and reviews the existing knowledge that outlays the rationale of the project and thereafter discuss the value that Abu Dhabi street lighting project would bring to the entire city and other stakeholders. In the process, a cost-benefit analysis of different street lighting options will be provided and alternative strategies for lighting the city given. These strategies would be considered high tech, which would replace the normal street lighting system with better enhanced lighting system. Work breakdown and the organizational structure of the project Upon authorization of the project, the management of the project would be sub-staged into five main processes; initiation, planning, execution, monitoring & control, and closing processes. The identified processes would be the basis of the project management cycle, which is done in phases as explained the next page. At each of the three phases discussed below, these five major processes are incorporated in order to ensure an efficient management of the project (Meirc Training & Consulting, n.d, p 13-20). Further decomposition of the whole work was done into properly manageable components, with each task assigned its manager and staffs as shown below according to the PMBOK’s projectized organization structure. Objectives, Rationale, and methods (Execution) of the project Having realized that the main problem with the Abu Dhabi street lights was associated with the high cost of the High pressure sodium lights in terms of the their energy consumption, local government of Abu Dhabi had to reconsider its objectives. The main objective of the project was to identify which strategy; or rather which combination of strategies would ensure an optimum cost minimization that would see the municipality’s annual savings to be substantial. Cost effectiveness is one of the main orientations of many organization; both profit making and non-profit making organizations (Field, M., & Keller, L. S, 2008, p.23). Less efficient products are always costly due to their maintenance and repair requirements. Using efficient products, no matter how their initial costs are high, associated benefits of using the LED lights to light up the Abu Dhabi streets would be very many, ranging from financial benefits to social benefits. One of the functions of the local authority is to provide sustainably good and safety environment that adds to the social benefits other than just initiating projects that would only minimize costs. In this case, despite the projects main objective was to identify and use a strategy that would minimize lighting costs, the project is interested in assessing some strategic design that would lead to non financial benefits. The non financial orientations ranges from social to private benefits associated with a well functioning Abu Dhabi street lighting. Using energy saving LED lights is a significant approach towards achieving the global environmental commitments and goals towards a green environment, pollution reduction and an efficient use of the advancement in technology to improve life standards and growth. The project recognizes the fact that smart lighting (use of LED lighting fixtures) enables better lighting management levels, particularly in hot spot areas like the street. Therefore, the project objectify assessing the existence of potential benefits that would be accrued to these strategies beyond just cost savings and whether they are sustainable no matter the costs given the economic dynamic cycles and shifts which has been witnessed within the last decade. To ensure that the strategies are properly addressed, the project is divided into three phases as outlined below; i. The first phase involves data collection and analysis of the complete materials or inventory of Abu Dhabi street lighting and the associated costs. This would enable the project to determine the cost benefit analysis of all the available strategies. A post benefit- cost analysis regarding each strategy would be presented to the management team for go-forward of the project’s plans. ii. The second phase is designed to address the second and the third objectives; the financial and the non financial benefits associated with the project. It would perform analysis of the LED lights, the data on their availability, energy use characteristics, and their replacement cycle. This will also include data on their quality of light. The next step in this phase would look into their non financial (intangible) potential benefits for instance the ability to vary the levels of lighting and their lesser light spillover. Other than the cost of the LED lights, data on execrated costs of replacing the High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lighting with them will be collected and determined. In addition to this, information regarding the process of converting to LED lights, tariffs and the public acceptance of the supposedly newly introduced lighting system will be determined and analyzed. The conclusion and recommendation of this phase will be very critical for the project as it will steer the next move for the project. Out of studies done by the local government, it was found that the cost of lighting up the Abu Dhabi Street can be recovered within seven years. In addition, the cost of white LED fixtures can cost appropriately triple the cost of traditional lamps, but their light is brighter, environmental friendly, and last longer. This would therefore mean less maintenance costs. In fact, a pilot survey conducted by the same authority found out that the LED lights last fir more than 50,000 hours. iii. This phase will be the ultimate and decisive part of the project. It involves a feasibility study of the project, analysis of other smart lighting options and the financial gains associated with the project. Other than the expected potential social gains, it looks into the project’s adherence to the international environmental regulations and policies, such as green environment promotion and reduction of light pollution. A complete review of data, reports, conclusions and recommendations regarding the phases above will be conducted in making an assessment of the achievability of the stated objectives of the project. Strategies and the Alternatives strategies of the project The local government (Abu Dhabi municipality) has a number of options that enable them to improve the public lighting for the street as well as the pathways, roadways, parking lots and the gardens across the city. The most important one though for this project is the street lighting. Although some of the applications can be involved and other integrated programmes, street lighting is an independent project with its own programme with myriad options to execute. The local government has the following options that will enable an execution of street lighting programme: 1) Replacing the existing High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lighting programme with the more energy efficient system like the LED lights. Other than this, energy use can be reduced by reviewing the number of the street lights, the power and the hours of operations for the street lights. This options have give way to either purchase new lights that would replace the current ones when they are in the ‘‘end –of life replacement’’ status or discontinue the use of the current system fixtures of the HPS lights and replace the completely with the LED lights. Post analysis review of the characteristics of both the lighting systems reveals that LED lights are very energy efficient than the normal HPS lighting fixtures. A cost effective approach would be very appropriate for the municipality which has been struggling with the high energy cost of street lighting for many years. In addition, though it needs very high initial cost, it would make the municipality save a lot of resources and money when discounted to the future. 2) Use of the solar power, also known as the stand-alone PV powered lighting. This option would involve a system that does not use the energy from the national electricity grid. It has a very simple installation system that saves energy and reduces the maintenance and running costs when compared to the grid interactive street lights. Post analysis review reveals that this option is very environmental friendly and given the weather surrounding Abu Dhabi, it can be very reliable source of energy. More than that, its operations at low voltage can be viewed as an added advantage. However, its initial costs of installation are very high and require a heavy preparation with the solar panels with is comparatively highly costly. 3) Procuring an equal amount of electricity and the feeding it to the general electricity national grid. This can enable street lighting be easily managed from the renewable energy sources. In supporting the local government in terms of energy production, this can widen up the scope of resource management in Abu Dhabi. However, this option can only be beneficial if the concentration was directed to street lighting and requires efficient management of the non-renewable resources. It also requires an extensive electric system and would steel not have solved the lighting fixtures and costs. The incorporation of these strategies was a subject to the local priorities and the circumstances of the lighting system of the Abu Dhabi Street. The priorities of the project were based on the costs, regulatory frameworks and the existing infrastructure. The available amount and allocated resources for this investment constrained the circumstances of the project to use the first option, but with incorporation of important elements of other options. As far as the Municipality is concerned, the main lighting system of the Abu Dhabi Street of salaam is already changing to one of the high road standards in terms of road safety and security. This will make this street to have one of the most complex lighting systems in the world. Project selection Criteria used Any designed programme is aimed at solving some problems that affect or may affect the community in any way. It can also be aimed at improving and conforming to the current improved global standards. The lighting system of Abu Dhabi Streets has been the commonly known HPS lamps fixtures. This system has been undoubtedly been disapproved in terms of efficiency and cost effectiveness. Therefore, an imitation of the programme to light up the streets with a new LED lighting technology was a welcome by the local authority. An explanation in terms of the value, benefits and costs associated with LED lighting fixtures meant that the project selection was done on particular patterns of interest (Meirc Training & Consulting, n.d, p.15). The project selection was done based on two criteria: 1 .Cost benefit criteria This criterion compares all the associated benefits of the project over all its costs. The benefits in this case included all the social, private, and financial benefits of the project, both in the short run and in the long run. The cost included the initial investment, maintenance costs, any additional resource costs, and lifespan of the programme. The expected benefits outweighed the expected associated costs. 2. Future Value This criterion considered initial investment on the LED lights. Its future benefits and values were also considered. Street installation of the LED lighting fixtures would cost highly, at approximate cost of over $100 million. However, with the efficiency of the system, there will be no costs of maintenance and repair for the next 15 to 20 years. This meant the system would derive high value and benefits for both public and the local government. Compared to the other lighting fixtures which have high maintenance and repair costs, the local authority of Abu Dhabi shall make huge savings of over $140 million if they adopt the LED lights. Decision Tree Benefits 10% 40% selection chance 90%Costs 60% chances of selection 85% Benefits 15% Costs Project Charter and Scope Statement Project Charter: Identification of the project need, duration, expected benefits and costs that enable acceptance to begin the project as soon as possible. Scopes Project Objectives i. To install a cost effective LED lighting fixtures along Abu Dhabi Street within five months period. ii. To assess the existence of potential benefits that would be accrued to these strategies beyond just cost savings. Deliverables i. Abu Dhabi streets, and along footpaths, of major highways starting with Salaam street. ii. High-efficiency 277 watt 658 Beta LED lights with 240 LED’s each. Milestones i. Permit (authorization) was given in February ii. Work preparations and initiation began in mid March iii. Installations involving, electrical, and mechanical was done by end of April, and ended in May. iv. Inspections done and passed on May 25 v. Final inspection will be in August Technical requirements i. The local installation codes must be met. ii. All the LED lights must meet the expected light ratings. iii. Street spacing and highway markings must be respected and Customer review: Abu Dhabi Municipality WBS sequencing Activity Predecessor Duration (weeks) A - 5 B - 6 C B 8 D A 7 E A 4 F B 6 G D 4 H E, F, G 4 I D 5 Network diagram of the project D 7 I 5 G 4 A 5 E 4 H 4 B 6 F 6 C 8 The Activities are ABCDEFGH. Their durations (in weeks) are as stated below: A B C D E F G H I 5 6 8 7 4 6 4 4 5 The longest path in terms of duration is the critical path (Meredith, J. R., & Mantel, S. J. ,2012, p 44). In this case, the projected total duration of the project is Five months. Therefore the longest period (and therefore the critical path) that would ensure perfect completion of the project is A-D-G-H. The Gantt chart February March April May June July Initiation: Authorization Determination of Requirements And resources Installations and Testing Monitory and regulating performance Inspections End Activity Millstone Milestone chart Feb March April May June July Permit (authorization) Work preparations and initiation Inspections Expected Final Inspection End Resource Planning The process of managing the team in executing a project may sometimes be a hectic task. However, when proper planning of all the resources is done, a high efficiency delivery can be obtained (Meredith, J. R., & Mantel, S. J. 2012, p56-71). Resource planning considers all the time and resources constraints and as far as Abu Dhabi Street lighting upgrade is concerned, the following resource histogram summarizes how time (in hours) and factor resources (as used by the staff) were planned hand in hand to ensure proper coordination of the project’s activities. It also shows more visual representation of the project’s resources. The allocations of work to staff by management reflect the time when staff members are available and the amount of time in hours they are able to work. Time allocations for this project were done through grouping, with specific groups of the staff reporting within a particular time frame. Resource Allocations Tasks Allocations Staff team Hours (Early) [total of 63hrs] Hours (Late) [total of 84 hrs] Days and the month Designers, plumbers and City architectures and plumbers 8hrs 10hrs Tue, Wed and Thurs, beginning mid march to mid April Installations engineers 6hrs 8hrs Tue, Wed, Thus (April, May) Monitory and regulations tasks Municipality staffs 3hrs 6hrs Mid may Inspection City engineer 4hrs - End of may, July and August Misappropriations, delays and efficiency of some team may lead to rescheduling of the resource allocations (Choudhury, 2008, p 37). This can be done by either splitting or delaying tasks so as to accommodate the stipulated timeframe of the project. The table below shows how leveling of the resources was done for the Abu Dhabi Street lighting project: Resource leveling Tasks Allocations Staff team Hours (Early) [total of 63hrs] Hours (Late) [total of 84 hrs] Days and the month Designers, plumbers and City architectures and plumbers 6hrs 8hrs Tue, Wed and Thurs, beginning mid march to mid April Installations engineers 8hrs 12hrs Tue, Wed, Thus (April, May) Monitory and regulations tasks Municipality staffs 3hrs 4hrs Mid may Inspection City engineer 4hrs - End of may, July and August Leveling resource smoothen the resource distribution by minimizing the variations of resource loading periods (Haynes, M. E., 2002, p28). This shifts activities within their floats or slacks allowances. Project Budgeting The basis of managing a project is to allocate resources, time, factor inputs, and money in the process of achieving goals and objectives of the project (Choudhury, 2008, pp 34). An estimation of the cost of the project and the expected savings is very important for project forecasting and maximum utilization of the available resources. The budget for the Abu Dhabi street light upgrade is shown below (rough estimate): WBS Number ID Description Budget 1 street lights upgrade $100 million 1.1 1 cost of lamp and site preparation $50 million 1.11 2 lamps $30 1.12 3 layout $5 1.13 4 Grading $8 1.14 5 Excavation $7 1.2 6 Utilities $30 million 1.21 Erection of posts(forms) $10 1.22 8 Installations and fixation of LED lamps $20 1.23 9 Regulatory & monitory activities $17 million 1.3 10 Inspection $3 million 1.4 11 Project complete $0 Cash flows of the Earliest and the latest cash flows Cost($million) cumulative cost Time(weeks) Earliest time Latest time 30 30 1 4 6 3 33 2 4 6 2.5 35.5 3 5 7 1.5 37 4 5 7 1 38 5 6 8 1 39 6 3 5 1 40 7 3 5 2.5 42.5 8 5 7 3 45.5 9 6 8 0.5 46 10 3 5 5 51 11 3 5 2 53 12 6 8 3 56 13 4 5 4 60 14 5 5 8 68 15 4 6 14 82 16 3 5 8 90 17 6 8 5 95 18 6 8 3 98 19 4 6 2 100 20 5 7 Lighting challenges that have necessitated this project along the Abu Dhabi streets The need for the well being of the public in terms of their safety during late evening and at night has not only brought the need to intensify external public lighting, but also to increase the light intensity as well. United Arabs Emirates, and with Abu Dhabi in particular, the temperature of the region is very high, at about 50 degrees Celsius during the summer. This temperature makes many people to stay in-doors, until evenings or nights when the temperature has cooled down. A lot of activities are therefore very paramount during these times of the day. A sustainable lighting is therefore very important in this case, that would encourage night time economic activities. The very high temperature in the United Arabs Emirates makes the environment very unfriendly especially to the electrical fixtures and fittings which are not enabled to sustain such environment. In addition, the high humidity together with other surrounding issues like dust and sand calls for better and more enhanced lighting system that would withstand the test of time and quality. The Abu Dhabi has had a history of poor lighting along its streets, particularly because they have been using the normally known, high pressure sodium (HPS) lightings. This has not served the standard of the street during evenings and nights because they do not provide the necessary and sustainably needed light intensity along Abu Dhabi streets. In these streets which have high economic activities during this times of the day have experienced increased crime rate and cases of insecurity. The city has been spending a lot of money annually on street lighting. With the rising cost of energy, the local government had been also put under great pressure to expand their neighborhood, among other important roles like repair and maintenance of the older street lights. The use of the beta LED luminaries will enable the street to globe with light in an efficient, sustainable and high light intensity that would make the environment very comfortable and increase personal safety and security. More than that, the LED lighting is less costly because they are energy savers compared to the high pressure sodium lighting system normally characterized by high energy consumption. The above challenges made the municipal council to plan commissioning the conversion of as many as 620000 high pressure sodium (HPS) lights to the modern high tech and luminous SSL (LED) fixtures. After accounting for the discounted costs of maintenance, repair and replacements for the next twenty years, this would enable the municipality to save between AED 500 million to AED I billion. Expected benefits of the project In every grown and growing economy, the one of the fundamental resources is the visibility of the main commercial and industrial capitals. Economic activities are better improved in such a visible centre (Haynes, M. E., 2002, p21). Beta LED street lighting will enhance an improved visibility for the road users since it produces a light uniformity that have superior quality in terms of color. Its laminations are very environmental friendly in the sense that it does not contain mercury or any other chemical which can be very harmful to the environment as compared to the previous system of lighting. LED street lighting system is very cost effective, evidenced by the resort of many countries in the world to invest in the LED street lighting. Its economic usage and life spans ranges from 15-20 years with almost zero maintenance. It is expected to reduce the energy consumption from 50% to 30 %. This accords the municipality some significant savings within this duration which is very large, savings which can be put into other economic use in other areas of the municipality and the city, such as infrastructural development. According to the municipality executive management, there is an assurance through the use of the LED lighting system of high return on investment that would save the city a lot of money in the long run. The standard and quality of life of the people in Abu Dhabi will be improved through the increased perceived sense of security levels and improved personal safety standards during late evenings and night hours. It also improves the standards of local environmental appearances. In addition to that, it reduces crime rates and enables extended use of the public spaces for different economic and recreational endeavors. Monitory and the Closing stages of the project A monitory program of the progress of the project will be determined that would ensure the project plans are executed according to schedule without any interference (Reid, A. P. 2009, p 71-76). This program will ensure the following; a. A complete implementation of the project’s plans and strategies b. Monitor the progress of every component of the project without any interference c. It will determine the effect of every component of the project to other components of the project overall. Approval of the project by the Abu Dhabi municipality summed up all the details and the expected tasks to complete the project in good faith. Just as all other processes of the project, the closing stage of the project will be done by documentations of all the information regarding the project and a post analysis of the project will be done to reflect on any matter that arose during the project durations among the project stakeholders. Acceptance of all the outcomes and putting operational procedures in place would see the end of the project. Reference List Choudhury, S. (2008). Project management. New Delhi, Tata McGraw-Hill. Field, M., & Keller, L. S. (2008). Project management [...] [...]. London [u.a.], International Thomson Business Press. Haynes, M. E. (2002). Project management practical tools for success. Menlo Park, Calif, Crisp Learning. http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/1560526653. Knutson, J., & Bitz, I. (2010). Project management: how to plan and manage successful projects. New York, NY, AMACOM. Kousholt, B. (2007). Project management: theory and practice. Kbh, Nyt Teknisk Forlag. Meirc Training & Consulting, (n.d). Module One: Project Management. Meredith, J. R., & Mantel, S. J. (2012). Project management: a managerial approach. Hoboken, NJ, Wiley. Nagarajan, K. (2005). Project management. New Delhi, New Age International. Reid, A. P. (2009). Project management: getting it right. Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press. Read More