Managing Difficulties and Risks in GreenTrust's EV Charging Infrastructure Pilot Project

Overview of GreenTrust's EV Charging Infrastructure Pilot Project

Robert Sim, the Managing Director of GreenTrust Pte Ltd is currently experiencing a difficult situation. About two years ago, Robert bided and won the project to install and operate an Electrical Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure pilot in the city of Colombus. As part of the pilot, GreenTrust is required to build and construct between 25 to 30 EV charging stations in the city of Colombus. With the number of EVs ever increasing, so was the pressure to increase the number of charging stations. The city wanted to use this pilot to gauge the feasibility of creating such an infrastructure on a larger scale. The tender was awarded at the value of $8.5 million. During the bid preparation stage, while Robert did not understand the technical risks related to the charging technology, his technical team reckoned that they would be able to use a popular EV charging method, such as the constant current, constant voltage or a multistage current charging algorithm. The project bid manager reported that the entire project would only cost $6 million, thereby generating a possible project profit of $2.5 million for GreenTrust. This is in addition to the possible recurring operating revenue to manage and operate the system on a long-term basis. At the present moment, two years have passed, and the project is already behind time by six months. The project team are facing issues with the charging technology and is requesting for an additional extension of six more months to complete the project. While the project manager is confident that they can turn things around, the other stakeholders who have been involved in the project painted a different picture. They feel that the current charging technology is not a good fit and will likely cause more integration problems in the future. Also, because the contract has a late delivery penalty clause, each month of delay will incur a penalty of 5% of the total contract value. Robert understands that this project is strategic to the reputation to GreenTrust as a pioneer in the EV charging infrastructure industry, as well as its standing as a reliable vendor for the city of Colombus. The project, once successfully completed, may also create more business and project opportunities for GreenTrust. However, he is also concerned that the project may be further delayed and affect the cashflow of the company. Moreover, if there is a technology issue related to the charging infrastructure, it may cause more problems for the company in terms of operational maintenance in the future. As this is a pilot project, the city of Columbus is willing for GreenTrust to terminate the project, but they expect GreenTrust to bear the penalty of the six-month delayGroup-based Assignment 

QUESTIONS A. List the problems and describe the risks related to the project. Analyse these problems and determine how GreenTrust could have prepared for these risks during the project initiating and project planning phases. 

B. Based on the information available, state if you would carry on with the project or terminate it. Show how you would go about executing your decision. Explain your choice with a detailed analysis.

C. Based on the decision in B, the project team will ultimately complete or terminate the project. Appraise why Project Closing or Closure still important in this project.

D. Explain how GreenTrust can close the project in the best manner possible. Develop a Project Closure document for GreenTrust.