¦PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
PROJECT TALK Delta Energy Services’ Sven Swenson discusses successful project execution with industry professionals. BY SVEN SWENSON
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hether upgrading plant capacity or outfitting an outdated plant with current technology, the ability to accurately plan, forecast and execute a project is a key component of running a biomass business. With all the project management information, tools and training available, it seems as though that performance would be easier than ever. Yet, problems still arise. To understand the biggest obstacles to successful project execution, I set out to discover the issues and hot buttons that are most near and dear—perhaps painful—to the hearts of those in the biomass industry with respect to capital projects. I have been engaging with biomass professionals to have that conversation, and will share some key points in this article series in the hopes that some of this insight will result in a better reality for your capital projects. My first conversation was with Mick Papp, owner and principle of SusEnergy LLC. Mick has many years of successful project management in the nuclear and bioenergy fields, including several years as the regional manager of projects for Enviva. I have extracted some of the most actionable items from our conversation and summarized them below.
The Vital Role of Project Managers
From Papp’s perspective, recognizing the vital role that project managers play is paramount to successful project execution. This, coupled with providing project managers with necessary resources early enough in the project to achieve the level of accuracy in planning and financial forecasting required by the company. Project managers are not often looked upon as the important change agents that they are, even though they are potentially re-
Swenson
sponsible for losing the company a heck of a lot of money. The choice of project manager is therefore vitally important to ensuring the project will be successful. Finding the right person is only part of the solution, though, as project management is not a one-man show by any stretch of the imagination. A properly executed project should begin with a number of items in place that are the responsibility of the management team, in support of the project manager. These important elements include not only stakeholder identification and involvement (which cannot be stressed enough), but also an understanding of the financial and regulatory goals and limitations of the project. There are numerous reasons why a capital project may be undertaken, and the project manager must have a keen understanding of goals in order to establish the correct scope and project decision points.
At project initiation, there is always potential for cancellation prior to completion due to changing regulatory or financial situations, new technology or other scenarios. As such, there is always a reluctance to spend “capital” money early, as it may unfortunately end up in the overhead bucket if the project is scrapped. The project financing process may also make it difficult to release funds early, over and above some limited project manager manhours. Papp offers that failing to properly fund a potential capital project early directly contributes to schedule and cost overruns, as well as some project failures. Today, there all kinds of tools for project management, including some sophisticated software tools to help facilitate the effort. However, tools are just tools. The importance of software tools shouldn’t be downplayed, but if you don’t have reasonable,
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24 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | ISSUE 4, 2021
