Level:
Intermediate
TCM Section(s)
3.3. Investment Decision Making
3.1. Requirements Elicitation and Analysis
Venue: 2024 AACE International Conference & Expo
Abstract: With Egypt's current economic crisis and rising inflation, there is an urge to cut costs to avoid cost overruns in public-private partnership (PPP) reverse osmosis (RO) desalination projects. Over fifty percent of these costs comprise operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, which are heavily influenced by a variety of factors. It is crucial to identify those factors and rank them based on their weighted impact on overall O&M expenditures. The paper starts by exploring the key factors that determine O&M costs using a literature review of published research papers, reports, and case studies related to desalination plants and their costs, as well as surveys and interviews with industry professionals. Furthermore, it employs the relative importance index (RII) as an analytical technique to determine the weighted rank of each item and their contribution to overall O&M expenses. Plant characteristics, architecture design, intake, deployed systems, management and financial elements, and governmental charges are among the primary factors that determine O&M costs. Finally, it is revealed that the factors that may have the highest impact on O&M costs can be summarized, but not limited to, as follows: water quality parameters, membrane replacement rate, design considerations, lack of trained maintenance personnel, and energy consumption.
TCM Section(s)
3.3. Investment Decision Making
3.1. Requirements Elicitation and Analysis
Venue: 2024 AACE International Conference & Expo
Abstract: With Egypt's current economic crisis and rising inflation, there is an urge to cut costs to avoid cost overruns in public-private partnership (PPP) reverse osmosis (RO) desalination projects. Over fifty percent of these costs comprise operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, which are heavily influenced by a variety of factors. It is crucial to identify those factors and rank them based on their weighted impact on overall O&M expenditures. The paper starts by exploring the key factors that determine O&M costs using a literature review of published research papers, reports, and case studies related to desalination plants and their costs, as well as surveys and interviews with industry professionals. Furthermore, it employs the relative importance index (RII) as an analytical technique to determine the weighted rank of each item and their contribution to overall O&M expenses. Plant characteristics, architecture design, intake, deployed systems, management and financial elements, and governmental charges are among the primary factors that determine O&M costs. Finally, it is revealed that the factors that may have the highest impact on O&M costs can be summarized, but not limited to, as follows: water quality parameters, membrane replacement rate, design considerations, lack of trained maintenance personnel, and energy consumption.