UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
49003 ECONOMIC EVALUATION GROUP PROJECT
Set 27 July 2020
Due dates
Project Description Report – 31 August
Presentation and Modelling Tool – 26 October Final Evaluation Report – 31 October
Reflection and Critique Report – 4 November
Most of the time engineers first become involved at the feasibility or design stages of a project – well after the most important strategic decisions have been made. These strategic decisions will determine the nature of a project and constrain the engineers to micro-decisions that will often have only a marginal effect on the utility and/or cost of the project.
In this group-project, you will have an opportunity to involve in such an important strategic decision-making process. Specifically, you will determine and assess the value of a project that could be of significance to your community, region, or country. You will be applying concepts learnt in this subject to analyse and evaluate a real-life project. In doing so, you will need to step outside the deterministic realms of engineering discipline and prepare to accept many uncertainties, and thus require to make assumptions, to produce a comprehensive assessment of a project.
This group-project will require extensive independent research and analysis to complete the report and presentation required for the delivery of the project. You will also need to critique and reflect on the analysis developed in this project. There are four deliverables of this group-project (see inside for more details).
Notes:
1. This group-project is worth 60 percent of the total mark for this subject.
2. All tasks in this group-project must be based on your original work. Marks will be awarded based on the originality and the professionalism of your deliverables (e.g., organisation of the content, succinctness and cogency of discussion, referencing, appendices, and overall presentation).
3. While producing end-result is important, the emphasis of this group-project is on the processes and ideas for conducting an economic evaluation.
4. Read the following pages carefully, then make a plan for all deliverables and distribute tasks evenly within your group – contributions by each group member will need to be highlighted clearly in all deliverables.
5. All deliverables must be uploaded using the appropriate link on Canvas. There is no tolerance on specified word/page limits. Any written material beyond these limits will not be marked.
THE SETTING
In line with the National Hydrogen Roadmap and its Net Zero Plan , the Government of New South Wales (NSW) is currently developing a NSW Hydrogen Strategy to drive the growth of a clean economy in the state. Central to this strategy is a Hydrogen Program (the Program) that provides a multi-billion dollars grants for demonstration and commercialisation of hydrogen projects across the supply chain – including hydrogen production, storage, distribution, and utilisation in various end-uses (e.g., industrial processes, transport, direct combustion, electricity generation, and export). The Program is being funded by the NSW and Commonwealth governments, with the main aim to fast track the commercialisation of hydrogen projects and accelerate the development of a clean economy in NSW.
The Program administrator is tasked to develop the business case for developing various hydrogen (infrastructure) projects, which will inform its funding allocation. Such projects have the potential to generate considerable community-wide interest. Rightly so. The investments are going to be large and their economic and societal implications are likely to be significant too. A careful economic evaluation of hydrogen projects is therefore necessary. In view of the renown of UTS MEM graduates, you have been invited by the Program administrator to identify and evaluate the hydrogen projects.
You, of course, accept the invitation!
THE TASKS
The Program administrator is seeking your assistance to:
? identify hydrogen projects (across the supply chain) in NSW
? conduct an economic evaluation of these projects, in line with the NSW Government Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis , and present the outcome of your analysis
? develop and provide a modelling tool that will enable the administrator to test projects’ viability under different future scenarios
THE GROUP
Each group of approximately ten students is tasked to identify and evaluate a hydrogen project – group members will be allocated on a random basis by Canvas. Please make sure that you belong to a group before the end of Week 1, and begin to communicate with your group members via the Group Discussion Board on Canvas.
Each group must nominate a group leader, who will be responsible for the proper functioning of their group towards the submission of all deliverables. If the performance of a group leader is below the expectation of their group members, the members can challenge the leadership and nominate an alternative member to be a group leader – all this needs to be done on the Group Discussion Board. You must notify the subject coordinator on any major changes in your group.
While most of the tasks will be conducted, and the deliverables will be submitted, by a group, the assessment will be based on individual efforts – the contributions by each group member must be clearly specified in all deliverables.