The Application Of Critical Chain Proiect Management In Environmental Projects For Thermal Power Plants

Environmental protection projects (EPPs) for thermal power plants have been rapidly increased in recent years, and the trend will remain with more stringent emissions standards as implemented. However, the application of the critical path method in power plant project management has been dwindled over the years, due to its suitability issues for thermal power plants. Therefore, the use of the management methods corresponding with the characteristics of EPPs has very important realistic significance for promoting environmental protection work of the electricity power industry.This study reviewed recent papers relevant to the critical chain method and project (program) managements, described the main principles necessary for this work; after introducing the background of thermal electricity generation and EPPs, it summarized and analyzed the characteristics, management difficulties and constraints of power plant EPPs, which is also the main focus and innovation points in this study. The main accomplishments obtained from this work are shown below:(1) Systematic summaries of the characteristics of individual projects, program and resource constraints for power plant EPPs and the associated organizations by using an expert investigation approach to collect relevant data and options from professionals with different management levels within this field;(2) From multiple perspectives, comparable analyses of the applicability of the critical chain method in EPPs using both literature and comparative analyses in combination with the characteristics of the electricity power industry;(3) Models of typical projects were used to analyze the application of the critical chain method in power plant individual projects, and they found that shortening project duration somewhat can significantly enhance the executablility and stability of project plans, effectively improve the monitoring of project progress, and furthermore provide a guarantee for the project resource allocation, safety management, and quality management;(4) The application analysis of the critical chain method on program of power plant EPPs indicated that the bottleneck of program management is resource management, and the buffer of resources set by established models can better monitor and allocate resources in order to shorten the total project duration and achieve optimal results of the overall program management;(5) Statistical data also revealed the normal project duration and ultimate project duration range of denitration projects of EPPs;(6) The application of the concepts and methods of the critical chain on specific projects using both case and empirical studies achieved satisfactory results, and several practical considerations for using critical chain method were also presented in this work.This study showed that the critical chain method is in agreement with the characteristics of power plant EPPs. The concepts of the critical chain method and constraint theory can be attractively used in the electricity power industry to ensure the executablility and stability of project plans and play a significant role in progress management, resource management, safety management, and quality management of projects.