VARIATION ORDERS DURING EXECUTION OF CONSTRUCTION INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS: CASE STUDY OF AN ELECTRICITY COMPANY

• Mrs Takalani Mashamba Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8074-1532
• Dr MG Kanakana-Katumba Department of Industrial Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7475-2131
• Professor Rendani Maladzhi Department of Mechanical Engineering, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3773-8538

Abstract

Electricity plays a fundamental role in efforts towards sustainable development and poverty alleviation. The South African government resolved to build new power-generating plants, but the completion of these projects has been affected by different variation orders. An investigation was conducted using the compensation events and variation committee records from different stations in the SAP database to determine the trend of the variation orders that were raised during the execution of the new stations and at existing plants. The results showed that factors such as scope change, integration between packages, design errors, and expedited schedules contributed to the variation orders during the execution of the infrastructure projects.