A comprehensive review of delays in power transmission projects

The power transmission (PT) system is at the very heart of the power industry and which is vital to the development of a country. Delays in PT projects have a significant adverse effect on the economic development of a country and although billions of dollars are invested globally in PT projects, costly delays are common. Despite the critical nature of PT, the literature relating to the causes of delays is embryonic, with no theoretical or empirical studies yet conducted to establish the factors involved. This paper presents a first step in rectifying this situation. A total of 74 published articles are reviewed that are most closely related to PT projects in order to identify their likely causes of delay. As a result, 82 potential causes of delay are identified and classified into nine major groups. The causes are then ranked in terms of their frequency of occurrence in the literature. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning the extent to which this review and analysis may form a theoretical framework that can be tested empirically, as well as providing crucial information with recommendation to PT project stakeholders to achieve their key targets including the realisation of the benefits involved

Causes of Delay in Power Transmission Projects: An Empirical Study

Power transmission (PT) projects are vital for the power sector. However, worldwide PT projects experience delay. There is an urgent need to understand the unique causes of delays in PT projects. This paper presents the first empirical study on causes of delays in PT projects via a comprehensive literature review. Based on this literature review, 63 potential delay factors are identified and divided into ten major groups. These include two new groups of delay attributes, comprising sector-specific factors (SSF) and general factors (GF), where SSF pertains solely to PT projects and GF contributes to minimizing the bias of project participants. A questionnaire survey of 311 PT stakeholders is conducted to determine the overall ranking of the delay factors using the relative importance index. The results indicate that SSF, GF, and external/unavoidable factors are the most critical groups of delay factors, with the top-ranked factors being right of way problems of transmission line (TL), frequent changes in TL routes, and accessibility to the TL tower locations. Finally, recommendations are made to help minimize time overruns in PT projects, as well as in other linear power and non-power construction projects in general.</p

Critical delay factors in power transmission projects: a structural equation modeling approach

Power transmission (PT) projects, as an essential link between power generation and distribution, play a vital role in the development of a country. To develop a clear understanding and identification of the critical idiosyncratic causes of delays in PT projects, for the first time, a model is developed to reflect the collective effects of 46 indicators under 10 factors. Based on the extended literature review and 18 sector experts' recommendations, this study introduces two new factors - (i) a sector-specific factor (SSF) and (ii) a general factor (GF), where SSF pertains the uniqueness of PT project delay characteristics and GF drives a less biased data sample. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test and validate the hypothesized model based on 311 valid questionnaire surveys. The validated model establishes SSF and GF as the most critical factors in PT project delays. With the clear insights provided by these findings, this study is expected to have a substantial influence on professionals in minimizing PT and other linear (power and non-power) project time overruns worldwide