IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juipol/v66y2020ics0957178720300977.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Governance, scale, scope: A review of six South African electricity generation infrastructure megaprojects

Author

Listed:
  • Gregory, Julian

Abstract

This empirical study analyses and evaluates six electricity generation megaprojects in South Africa, undertaken to facilitate an understanding of how project governance, scale and scope, influence the development performance of such types of projects in a sub-Saharan context (recognising the inference limitations). Three case-studies, Medupi, Kusile and Ingula, are significantly larger and have been problematical to build for the country's national electricity utility, Eskom. The three smaller case-studies, Avon, Dedisa and Sere, were all successfully commissioned and serve as a counterfactual for this analysis. The fieldwork involved 32 interviews with knowledgeable experts from at least one project.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregory, Julian, 2020. "Governance, scale, scope: A review of six South African electricity generation infrastructure megaprojects," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:66:y:2020:i:c:s0957178720300977
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2020.101103
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178720300977
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jup.2020.101103?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Van de Graaf, Thijs & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2014. "Thinking big: Politics, progress, and security in the management of Asian and European energy megaprojects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 16-27.
    2. Atif Ansar & Bent Flyvbjerg & Alexander Budzier & Daniel Lunn, 2016. "Big is Fragile: An Attempt at Theorizing Scale," Papers 1603.01416, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2017.
    3. Erdmann, Gero & Engel, Ulf, 2006. "Neopatrimonialism Revisited - Beyond a Catch-All Concept," GIGA Working Papers 16, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    4. Manuela Mosca, 2008. "On the origins of the concept of natural monopoly: Economies of scale and competition," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 317-353.
    5. Roger Miller & Brian Hobbs, 2009. "The Complexity of Decision-Making in Large Projects with Multiple Partners: Be Prepared to Change," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Terry M. Williams & Knut Samset & Kjell J. Sunnevåg (ed.), Making Essential Choices with Scant Information, chapter 18, pages 375-389, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2009. "Survival of the unfittest: why the worst infrastructure gets built--and what we can do about it," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 25(3), pages 344-367, Autumn.
    7. Silberston, Aubrey, 1972. "Economies of Scale in Theory and Practice," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(325), pages 369-391, Supplemen.
    8. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    9. Hobday, Mike & Rush, Howard & Tidd, Joe, 2000. "Innovation in complex products and system," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(7-8), pages 793-804, August.
    10. Flyvbjerg,Bent & Bruzelius,Nils & Rothengatter,Werner, 2003. "Megaprojects and Risk," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521009461.
    11. Benjamin K. Sovacool & Christopher J. Cooper, 2013. "The Governance of Energy Megaprojects," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15106.
    12. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2014. "What You Should Know About Megaprojects, and Why: An Overview," Papers 1409.0003, arXiv.org.
    13. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Gilbert, Alex & Nugent, Daniel, 2014. "Risk, innovation, electricity infrastructure and construction cost overruns: Testing six hypotheses," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 906-917.
    14. Rothengatter, Werner, 2019. "Megaprojects in transportation networks," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-15.
    15. Brookes, Naomi J. & Locatelli, Giorgio, 2015. "Power plants as megaprojects: Using empirics to shape policy, planning, and construction management," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 57-66.
    16. Moussa P. Blimpo & Malcolm Cosgrove-Davies, 2019. "Electricity Access in Sub-Saharan Africa [Accès à l’électricité en Afrique subsaharienne]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 31333, December.
    17. Geels, Frank W., 2004. "From sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems: Insights about dynamics and change from sociology and institutional theory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(6-7), pages 897-920, September.
    18. Kenneth Arrow, 1970. "Political and Economic Evaluation of Social Effects and Externalities," NBER Chapters, in: The Analysis of Public Output, pages 1-30, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Wang, Q. & von Tunzelmann, N., 2000. "Complexity and the functions of the firm: breadth and depth," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(7-8), pages 805-818, August.
    20. Gregory, Julian & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2019. "The financial risks and barriers to electricity infrastructure in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique: A critical and systematic review of the academic literature," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 145-153.
    21. Gregory, Julian & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2019. "Rethinking the governance of energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: Reviewing three academic perspectives on electricity infrastructure investment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 344-354.
    22. Don Scott-Kemmis & Martin Bell, 2010. "The mythology of learning-by-doing in World War II airframe and ship production," International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(1), pages 1-35.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wandisile Pram & Njabulo Kambule & Omoseni Adepoju, 2022. "Probing the Financial Sustainability of Eskom’s Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs) Utilisation (2018–2021)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    2. Antonio Andreoni & Kenneth Creamer & Mariana Mazzucato & Grové Steyn, 2022. "How can South Africa advance a new energy paradigm? A mission-oriented approach to megaprojects [‘The Political Economy of Industrial Policy’]," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 38(2), pages 237-259.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Atif Ansar & Bent Flyvbjerg & Alexander Budzier & Daniel Lunn, 2016. "Big is Fragile: An Attempt at Theorizing Scale," Papers 1603.01416, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2017.
    2. Brookes, Naomi J. & Locatelli, Giorgio, 2015. "Power plants as megaprojects: Using empirics to shape policy, planning, and construction management," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 57-66.
    3. Callegari, C. & Szklo, A. & Schaeffer, R., 2018. "Cost overruns and delays in energy megaprojects: How big is big enough?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 211-220.
    4. Gregory, Julian & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2019. "Rethinking the governance of energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: Reviewing three academic perspectives on electricity infrastructure investment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 344-354.
    5. Martijn Leijten, 2013. "Real-world decision-making on mega-projects: politics, bias and strategic behaviour," Chapters, in: Hugo Priemus & Bert van Wee (ed.), International Handbook on Mega-Projects, chapter 4, pages 57-82, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Rebecca Vine, 2020. "Riskwork in the construction of Heathrow Terminal 2," SPRU Working Paper Series 2020-20, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    7. Ansar, Atif & Flyvbjerg, Bent & Budzier, Alexander & Lunn, Daniel, 2014. "Should we build more large dams? The actual costs of hydropower megaproject development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 43-56.
    8. Lehtonen, Markku, 2019. "Ecological Economics and Opening up of Megaproject Appraisal: Lessons From Megaproject Scholarship and Topics for a Research Programme," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 148-156.
    9. Giorgio Locatelli, 2018. "Why are Megaprojects, Including Nuclear Power Plants, Delivered Overbudget and Late? Reasons and Remedies," Papers 1802.07312, arXiv.org.
    10. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2021. "Four Ways to Scale Up: Smart, Dumb, Forced, and Fumbled," Papers 2101.11104, arXiv.org.
    11. Gil, Nuno & Miozzo, Marcela & Massini, Silvia, 2012. "The innovation potential of new infrastructure development: An empirical study of Heathrow airport's T5 project," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 452-466.
    12. Gil, Nuno, 2007. "On the value of project safeguards: Embedding real options in complex products and systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 980-999, September.
    13. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Enevoldsen, Peter, 2015. "One style to build them all: Corporate culture and innovation in the offshore wind industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 402-415.
    14. Leurent, Martin & Jasserand, Frédéric & Locatelli, Giorgio & Palm, Jenny & Rämä, Miika & Trianni, Andrea, 2017. "Driving forces and obstacles to nuclear cogeneration in Europe: Lessons learnt from Finland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 138-150.
    15. Love, Peter E.D. & Ika, Lavagnon A. & Ahiaga-Dagbui, Dominic D., 2019. "On de-bunking ‘fake news’ in a post truth era: Why does the Planning Fallacy explanation for cost overruns fall short?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 397-408.
    16. Muhammad Zeeshan Fareed & Qin Su, 2022. "Project Governance and Project Performance: The Moderating Role of Top Management Support," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-13, February.
    17. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2014. "What You Should Know About Megaprojects, and Why: An Overview," Papers 1409.0003, arXiv.org.
    18. Jenkins, G. & Olasehinde-Williams, G. & Baurzhan, S., 2022. "Is there a net economic loss from employing reference class forecasting in the appraisal of hydropower projects?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    19. Ramjerdi, Farideh & Fearnley, Nils, 2014. "Risk and irreversibility of transport interventions," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 31-39.
    20. Locatelli, Giorgio & Invernizzi, Diletta Colette & Brookes, Naomi J., 2017. "Project characteristics and performance in Europe: An empirical analysis for large transport infrastructure projects," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 108-122.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:66:y:2020:i:c:s0957178720300977. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/utilities-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.