Evaluating risk management in independent water and power plant projects in Saudi Arabia

Worldwide countries are striving to meet demands for water and power, which have been estimated as likely to increase at a rate of 7 percent per annum over the coming decade. Water and power plant projects following the Independent Water and Power Plant (IWPP) approach have typically involved a plethora of risks, as they have been reliant on long-term arrangements to transfer project risks, traditionally borne by the government, to the private sector. Since about 75% of IWPP projects in Saudi Arabia (SA) have failed to meet specified objectives, effective risk management (RM) implementation is key to the success of any public and private project. Practitioners, who are key informants in this subject area, have related their experience about RM in IWPP projects in SA through semi-structured interviews, and analysed these through the grounded theory approach. This study gathers and collates data to present findings in a propositional diagram that is fully grounded, based on practitionersÕ experiences that extend to the ineffectiveness of implementing RM in water and power projects, specifically in IWPP projects in SA. Findings indicate that IWPP parties have implemented RM in an informal way. In addition, there is a general lack of RM knowledge in the SA water and power industry. The paper concludes with an emergent diagram illustrating major phenomena, categories, and subcategories affecting the implementation of RM in IWPP projects in SA.