Govt. has decided to construct an off-shore wind mill (wind farm) project of 50 wind turbines in Green Island to produce 50 mega-watt green energy. There was an open tender to select the vendor for the project and your firm Compliant Corporation has won the contract to build the Wind Farm and deliver the project as per the project specification and within the timeline of 24 months from awarding of the project. The total cost of the project is 1,500 Crore taka.

You have been assigned to lead this wind power project on behalf of your company Compliance Corporation. Your company is a reputed supplier and contractor for similar projects and has good past track record. The project location is the offshore area of Green Island. The habitants of the island mainly depend on fishing for their livelihood. There are almost 150 families directly dependent upon fishing. This is a very important project for the government as this will help to generate green energy and reduce the dependency on fossil fuel-based energy generation. It will also provide electricity to the Green Island, this island has been deprived of grid electricity for a long time now. Govt. is extremely keen to make the project successful. You have to manage the project in such a way that you are able to meet the timeline, the quality of delivery and also the cost as per Compliance Corporations commitment in the tendering process.

The submitted offer from Compliance Corporation contains the detailed design of the solution and necessary specifications of the materials used. You now have started looking into the design specification with the technical team for the final checking to make sure that there are no loose ends. In the process you now have been reported by an engineer about a probable challenge of the metal structure of the monopoles that will be installed in the sea bed and will remain submerged under the sea water. The kind of galvanic anode that has been used to protect the corrosion of the metal structure releases more aluminum than what is permissible by the environmental regulation of the country. If it is proven afterwards that the anodes are releasing more than what is specified in the regulation there can be penalty imposed as high as 100 Crore BDT. Besides the risk of the penalty theres also serious risk of marine life destruction and the reputational risk of the company. To mitigate the excessive aluminum release problem the team did some internal investigation which shows that there are alternative anodes available in the market, if used can limit the aluminum release within the specified limit as per the environmental regulation. But this would increase the cost of the project and may also impact the project timeline.

You have notified this issue to your supervisor who is the head of Project Management Office but you found him reluctant as he opined that it wont be possible by the Government to figure out this deviation and he is not considering this as a risk. Because if this problem is addressed the project cost will increase by 20% and also the timeline will be impacted by 6 months. This will badly impact the profitability of the project and also harm the reputation of the company, he thinks.

During the installation of the foundation, the monopoles, sounds will be produced and that will drive away the fishes. Since there are 50 such poles to be installed over a time period of at least 12 months, there will be impact on the fishing of the local people. Already they have made apprehensions and there seems to be negative feeling growing among the local populations. Since their livelihood is pretty much dependent on the fish, if the availability is reduced and they need to sail far away to catch fishes, their income will be reduced. Also, they apprehend that once the wind farm is in operation it will drive away the birds and theres possibility of killing the birds. This would have negative impact on the ecology of the Green island. These birds play an important role by eating the bad insects and consequently saving the small crops harvested in the island. Getting electricity in the village will change the living standard of the local population, this will improve education, healthcare, lifestyle and also generate employment.

Question 1: What should you do about the excessive aluminum release issue from the galvanic anode? Please explain the background of your action.

Question 2: The livelihood of the local people will be impacted during the project. What should you do about this? Please explain the premise of your action.

Question 3: Please make your own recommendation, if you have any, how this project should have originally planned, designed and executed.