Technical Papers
Nov 26, 2018

Modified Fuzzy Group Decision-Making Approach to Cost Overrun Risk Assessment of Power Plant Projects

Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 145, Issue 2

Abstract

Cost overrun risk assessment in the preliminary stages of a power plant project is laden with subjectivity, uncertainty, imprecision, and the vagueness of expert judgment. Current fuzzy approaches to risk assessment in such projects specifically require improvements in the reliability and aggregation process of experts’ judgments as well as the incorporation of project phase–based risk assessment to comprehend the sources of the risks and their corresponding effects on cost overruns. In response, this study proposes a modified fuzzy group decision-making approach (FGDMA) and assesses cost overrun risks considering different project phases [(1) design and procurement, and (2) construction and commissioning] of the power plant projects of varying types, sizes/capacities, and contracts. The proposed methodology is applied to 10 different project scenarios to better understand the context of project risks and their profile and identify the critical cost overrun risks involved. This study will aid the comprehensive assessment of risks and increase the accuracy of project budgeting and contingency allocation decisions.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

Data Availability Statement

Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. Information about the Journal’s data-sharing policy can be found here: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001263.

References

Abdelgawad, M., and A. R. Fayek. 2010. “Risk management in the construction industry using combined fuzzy FMEA and fuzzy AHP.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 136 (9): 1028–1036. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000210.
Aboshady, A. M., M. M. G. Elbarkouky, and M. Mohamed. 2013. “A fuzzy risk management framework for the Egyptian real estate development projects.” In Proc., Architectural Engineering Conf., 343–352. Reston, VA: ASCE.
ADB (Asian Development Bank). 2013. “Bangladesh: Power sector development program.” Accessed February 10, 2016. http://www.adb.org/projects/36205-023/main.
Ahiaga-Dagbui, D. D., and S. D. Smith. 2014. “Rethinking construction cost overruns: Cognition, learning and estimation.” J. Finan. Manage. Prop. Const. 19 (1): 38–54. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMPC-06-2013-0027.
Ameyaw, E. E., A. P. C. Chan, O.-M. De-Graft, and E. Coleman. 2015. “A fuzzy model for evaluating risk impacts on variability between contract sum and final account in government-funded construction projects.” J. Facil. Manage. 13 (1): 45–69. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFM-11-2013-0055.
Aznar, B., E. Pellicer, S. Davis, and P. Ballesteros-Pérez. 2017. “Factors affecting contractor’s bidding success for international infrastructure projects in Australia.” J. Civ. Eng. Manage. 23 (7): 880–889. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2017.1341955.
Bangladesh Country Commercial Guide. 2017. “Bangladesh: Power & energy.” Accessed October 5, 2017. https://www.export.gov/article?id=Bangladesh-Power-and-energy.
Borgonovo, E. 2006. “Measuring uncertainty importance: Investigation and comparison of alternative approaches.” Risk Anal. 26 (5): 1349–1361. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2006.00806.x.
BPDB (Bangladesh Power Development Board). 2017. “Annual report (2015–16).” Accessed October 5, 2017. http://www.bpdb.gov.bd/download/annual_report/Annual_Report_2015_16.pdf.
Carr, V., and J. H. Tah. 2001. “A fuzzy approach to construction project risk assessment and analysis: Construction project risk management system.” Adv. Eng. Soft. 32 (10–11): 847–857. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0965-9978(01)00036-9.
Clemen, R. T. 2008. “Comments: Comment on Cooke’s classical method.” Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf. 93 (5): 760–765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2008.02.003.
Cooke, R. 1991. Experts in uncertainty: Opinions and subjective probability in science. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dikmen, I., M. T. Birgonul, and S. Han. 2007. “Using fuzzy risk assessment to rate cost overrun risk in international construction projects.” Int. J. Project Manage. 25 (5): 494–505. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.12.002.
Doloi, H. 2009. “Analysis of pre-qualification criteria in contractor selection and their impacts on project success.” Constr. Manage. Econ. 27 (12): 1245–1263. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903394541.
Eberhard, A., and K. Gratwick. 2007. “From state to market and back again: Egypt’s experiment with independent power projects.” Energy 32 (5): 724–738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2006.05.003.
Ebrahimnejad, S., S. M. Mousavi, and H. Seyrafianpour. 2010. “Risk identification and assessment for build-operate–transfer projects: A fuzzy multi attribute decision making model.” Expert Syst. Appl. 37 (1): 575–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2009.05.037.
Ebrahimnejad, S., S. M. Mousavi, R. Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, H. Hashemi, and B. Vahdani. 2012. “A novel two-phase group decision making approach for construction project selection in a fuzzy environment.” Appl. Math. Model. 36 (9): 4197–4217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2011.11.050.
Eybpoosh, M., I. Dikmen, and M. T. Birgonul. 2011. “Identification of risk paths in international construction projects using structural equation modeling.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 137 (12): 1164–1175. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000382.
Ghoddousi, P., and M. R. Hosseini. 2012. “A survey of the factors affecting the productivity of construction projects in Iran.” Technol. Econ. Dev. Economy 18 (1): 99–116. https://doi.org/10.3846/20294913.2012.661203.
Gilbert, A., B. K. Sovacool, P. Johnstone, and A. Stirling. 2017. “Cost overruns and financial risk in the construction of nuclear power reactors: A critical appraisal.” Energy Policy 102: 644–649. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2016.04.001.
Gonzalez, A. J., and D. D. Dankel. 1993. The engineering of knowledge-based systems: Theory and practice. Englewood-Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Hadikusumo, B. H. W., and S. Tobgay. 2015. “Construction claim types and causes for a large-scale hydropower project in Bhutan.” J. Constr. Dev. Countries 20 (1): 49–63.
Han, S. H., and J. Diekmann. 2004. “Judgment-based cross-impact method for predicting cost variance for highly uncertain projects.” J. Constr. Res. 5 (2): 171–192. https://doi.org/10.1142/S1609945104000139.
Hannan, S. A. 2015. “Fate of 13 power plants hangs in balance: Serious efforts needed to solve the problems.” Khabor Dot Kom, Online Yahoo Group, 1–3.
Hossen, M. M., S. Kang, and J. Kim. 2015. “Construction schedule delay risk assessment by using combined AHP-RII methodology for an international NPP project.” Nuclear Eng. Technol. 47 (3): 362–379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2014.12.019.
Islam, M. S., M. P. Nepal, M. Skitmore, and M. Attarzadeh. 2017. “Current research trends and application areas of fuzzy and hybrid methods to the risk assessment of construction projects.” Adv. Eng. Info. 33: 112–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2017.06.001.
Jarkas, A. M., S. A. Mubarak, and C. Y. Kadri. 2014. “Critical factors determining bid/no bid decisions of contractors in Qatar.” J. Manage. Eng. 30 (4): 05014007. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000223.
Ji, Y., G. H. Huang, W. Sun. 2015. “Risk assessment of hydropower stations through an integrated fuzzy entropy-weight multiple criteria decision making method: A case study of the Xiangxi River.” Expert Syst. Appl. 42 (12): 5380–5389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2014.12.026.
Jung, J. H., D. Y. Kim, and H. K. Lee. 2016. “The computer-based contingency estimation through analysis cost overrun risk of public construction project.” KSCE J. Civ. Eng. 20 (4): 1119–1130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-015-0184-8.
Kabir, G., R. Sadiq, and S. Tesfamariam. 2015. “A fuzzy Bayesian belief network for safety assessment of oil and gas pipelines.” Struct. Infrastruct. Eng. 12 (8): 874–889. https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2015.1053093.
Kabir, H. 2012. “Delay, fund crisis plague large power plants implementation.” Financial Express 20 (435), in press.
Ke, Y., S. Wang, A. P. C. Chan, and P. T. I. Lam. 2010. “Preferred risk allocation in China’s public-private partnership (PPP) projects.” Int. J. Project Manage. 28 (5): 482–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.08.007.
Kehlhofer, R., B. Rukes, F. Hannemann, and F. Stirnimann. 2009. “Economics.” Chap. 3 in Combined-cycle gas & steam turbine power plants, 3rd ed., 13. Tulsa, OK: Pennwell Books.
Kim, M., I. Lee, and Y. Jung. 2017. “International project risk management for nuclear power plant (NPP) construction: Featuring comparative analysis with fossil and gas power plants.” Sustainability (Switzerland) 9 (3): 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030469.
Kucukali, S. 2011. “Risk assessment of river-type hydropower plants using fuzzy logic approach.” Energy Policy 39 (10): 6683–6688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.06.067.
Kucukali, S. 2016. “Risk scorecard concept in wind energy projects: An integrated approach.” Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev. 56: 975–987. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.017.
Li, Y., and X. Wang. 2016. “Risk assessment for public-private partnership projects: Using a fuzzy analytic hierarchical process method and expert opinion in China.” J. Risk Res. 21 (8): 952–973. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2016.1264451.
Liu, J., Q. Xie, B. Xia, and A. J. Bridge. 2017. “Impact of design risk on the performance of design-build projects.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 43 (6): 04017010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001299.
Ministry of Finance, Malaysia. 2016. “Study on gas-fired combined cycle power plant project in Malaysia.” Accessed December 12, 2017. http://www.meti.go.jp/meti_lib/report/2016fy/000716.pdf.
Mokhtari, K., J. Ren, C. Roberts, and J. Wang. 2012. “Decision support framework for risk management on sea ports and terminals using fuzzy set theory and evidential reasoning approach.” Expert Syst. Appl. 39 (5): 5087–5103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2011.11.030.
Nasirzadeh, F., M. Khanzadi, and M. Rezaie. 2014. “Dynamic modeling of the quantitative risk allocation in construction projects.” Int. J. Project Manage. 32 (3): 442–451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.06.002.
Novak, V. 2012. “Reasoning about mathematical fuzzy logic and its future.” Fuzzy Sets Syst. 192 (1): 25–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fss.2010.09.019.
Pall, G. K., A. J. Bridge, M. Skitmore, and J. Gray. 2016. “A comprehensive review of delays in power transmission projects.” IET Gener. Transm. Distrib. 10 (14): 3393–3404. https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-gtd.2016.0376.
Rebeiz, K. S. 2012. “Public-private partnership risk factors in emerging countries: BOOT illustrative case study.” J. Manage. Eng 28 (4): 421–428. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000079.
Shafiee, M. 2015. “A fuzzy analytic network process model to mitigate the risks associated with offshore wind farms.” Expert Syst. Appl. 42 (4): 2143–2152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2014.10.019.
Singer, L. E., and D. Peterson. 2017. International energy outlook 2017. Washington, DC: US Energy Information Administration.
Sovacool, B. K., D. Nugent, and A. Gilbert. 2014. “Construction cost overruns and electricity infrastructure: An unavoidable risk?” Electr. J. 27 (4): 112–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2014.03.015.
Sudirman, W. B., and S. Hardjomuljadi. 2012. “Project risk management in hydropower plant projects: A case study from the state-owned electricity company of Indonesia.” J. Infrastruct. Dev. 3 (2): 171–186. https://doi.org/10.1177/097493061100300205.
Taroun, A. 2014. “Towards a better modelling and assessment of construction risk: Insights from a literature review.” Int. J. Project Manage. 32 (1): 101–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.03.004.
Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, R., S. M. Mousavi, and H. Hashemi. 2011. “A fuzzy comprehensive approach for risk identification and prioritization simultaneously in EPC projects.” In Risk management in environment, production and economy, edited by M. Savino. London: INTECH.
Velasquez, M., and P. T. Hester. 2013. “An analysis of multi-criteria decision making methods.” Int. J. Oper. Res. 10 (2): 56–66.
Wang, S. Q., and L. K. Tiong. 2000. “Case study of government initiatives for PRC’s BOT power plant project.” Int. J. Project Manage. 18 (1): 69–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0263-7863(98)00072-6.
Xia, N., X. Wang, Y. Wang, Q. Yang, and X. Liu. 2017. “Lifecycle cost risk analysis for infrastructure projects with modified Bayesian networks.” J. Eng. Des. Technol. 15 (1): 79–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEDT-05-2015-0033.
Xu, Y., J. F. Y. Yeung, A. P. C. Chan, D. W. M. Chan, S. Q. Wang, and Y. Ke. 2010. “Developing a risk assessment model for PPP projects in China: A fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach.” Autom. Constr. 19 (7): 929–943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.06.006.
Yoo, W. S., J. Yang, S. Kang, and S. Lee. 2017. “Development of a computerized risk management system for international NPP EPC projects.” KSCE J. Civ. Eng. 21 (1): 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-016-0784-y.
Zaili, Y., S. Bonsall, and W. Jin. 2008. “Fuzzy rule-based Bayesian reasoning approach for prioritization of failures in FMEA.” Reliab. IEEE Trans. 57 (3): 517–528. https://doi.org/10.1109/TR.2008.928208.
Zegordi, S. H., E. Rezaee Nik, and A. Nazari. 2012. “Power plant project risk assessment using a fuzzy-ANP and fuzzy-TOPSIS method.” Int. J. Eng. Trans. B: Appl. 25 (2): 107–120. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.ije.2012.25.02b.04.
Zhao, H., and N. Li. 2015. “Risk evaluation of a UHV power transmission construction project based on a cloud model and FCE method for sustainability.” Sustainability 7 (3): 2885–2914. https://doi.org/10.3390/su7032885.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 145Issue 2February 2019

History

Received: Mar 8, 2018
Accepted: Jul 27, 2018
Published online: Nov 26, 2018
Published in print: Feb 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Apr 26, 2019

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Muhammad Saiful Islam [email protected]
Ph.D. Candidate, School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Queensland Univ. of Technology, 2 George St., Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Madhav P. Nepal, A.M.ASCE [email protected]
Lecturer, School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Queensland Univ. of Technology, 2 George St., Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia (corresponding author). Email: [email protected]
Martin Skitmore [email protected]
Professor, School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Queensland Univ. of Technology, 2 George St., Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia. Email: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Download citation

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

Cited by

View Options

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share