Developing a Risk Breakdown Matrix for the Construction of On-Shore Wind Farm Projects

Wind farm projects have recently gained popularity in many countries. However, since wind farms are a novel type of infrastructure for energy production for which limited historical data are available, numerous unique challenges are encountered during their construction. One of the main challenges involves risk management. Many researchers and practitioners have investigated on- and off-shore wind farm projects in terms of risk identification. However, they have mostly focused on off-shore wind farm projects; there is little research on risk identification for on-shore wind farm projects. To address this gap in the research, this paper develops a risk breakdown matrix (RBM) for the construction of on shore wind farm projects. Due to a lack of research on risk identification for on shore wind farm projects, in this paper, the case-based reasoning (CBR) technique is used to develop the RBM. First, the construction work packages (CWPs) of on shore wind farm projects are identified. Then, by comparing the CWPs of these projects to those from other types of construction projects, the work-package level risks that affect each CWP are identified based on the similarities between on shore wind farm projects and other types of construction projects. The RBM developed in this paper can be used for the risk identification and risk management of on-shore wind farm projects. The contributions of this paper are twofold: First, it introduces CBR as a risk identification technique for on shore wind farm or other similar construction projects, which is a topic that has not previously been comprehensively studied. Second, it identifies the work-package-level risks affecting these projects and maps each risk factor to the affected CWPs.