Document Type

Closed Project

Publication Date

Spring 2013

Instructor

Dundar F. Kocaoglu

Course Title

Project Management

Course Number

ETM 545

Abstract

Renewable energy has become more popular because fossil fuels are in continual decline, and their price is unstable and getting higher. Renewable energy is a great option for both government and the private sector to invest in green and sustainable energy. However, some types of green energy such as Bio and Geothermal need high investment. Thus, the private sector tends toward interest in putting their money in some kind of energy with cheaper funding and a faster return. Solar and Wind energy might be the right answer for them. Due to these kinds of technology needing experts to do the work; most private sector companies will usually outsource the work to contractors, who have experience in installing either solar panels or small wind turbines. Because renewable energy is getting popular and more home owners and companies are willing to install the system to save costs of energy, the researchers studied types of conflict that occurred during installing the green energy system between the owner of the project and the contractor. In this project, a solar panel installation is focused on. Trimet as the owner of the project hired REC, the contractor to installing the solar panel for the Jackson St. light rail terminus in downtown Portland. In this particular project, the project managers from both companies worked together throughout the project life cycle. For studying the conflicts that might occur during the project, this project was performed. An interview was conducted with the project owner, and a questionnaire sent out to ask 1) Trimet project manager, 2) REC manager and 3) Trimet assistant manager to prioritize the sources of conflict in order. Our result found that though the particular project was a success, the three managers surveyed were in disagreement on the rankings of conflict sources at different points throughout the project. Thus, we conclude that under the best of circumstances, owner/contractor relationships must be managed carefully to avoid major disagreements leading to conflict that can derail the project.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

This project is only available to students, staff, and faculty of Portland State University

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/21912

Download

Share

COinS