Project Controls Simulator · Free beginner exercise
Power Infrastructure Upgrade
Expand a 138 kV substation and upgrade 14 miles of transmission line to serve a growing industrial park. Owner: Northfield Valley Power (fictional utility).
Fictional training data. Not a real project, utility or company.
Approved budget
$50,000,000
$47,500,000 baseline + $2,500,000 contingency
Planned duration
24 months
104 weeks
Control accounts
- 1. Project management and engineering$4.0M
- 2. Major equipment procurement$14.5M
- 3. Site preparation and civil$6.0M
- 4. Substation construction$10.5M
- 5. Transmission line upgrade$9.0M
- 6. Testing and commissioning$3.5M
Your task: find the critical path
The project team has sequenced 12 summary activities (durations in weeks, finish-to-start links). Work through the forward pass, backward pass and float. Every answer is checked instantly.
Prefer Excel? Download the free CPM worksheet (.xlsx, includes this network solved with live formulas).
Step 1 · Forward pass
Work top to bottom. Early Start (ES) is the latest Early Finish of all predecessors (0 if none). Early Finish (EF) = ES + duration.
| ID | Activity | Dur (wk) | Pred. | ES | EF | LS | LF | TF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Kickoff and permits | 8 | — | · | · | · | ||
| B | Detailed engineering | 20 | A | · | · | · | ||
| C | Procure power transformers (long lead) | 52 | B | · | · | · | ||
| D | Site preparation and civil | 16 | A | · | · | · | ||
| E | Substation foundations | 12 | D | · | · | · | ||
| G | Procure switchgear | 30 | B | · | · | · | ||
| F | Steel and switchgear install | 16 | E, G | · | · | · | ||
| H | Transformer installation | 8 | C, F | · | · | · | ||
| I | Transmission line upgrade | 40 | B | · | · | · | ||
| J | Line tie-in | 4 | I, H | · | · | · | ||
| K | Testing and commissioning | 10 | J | · | · | · | ||
| L | Energization and handover | 2 | K | · | · | · |
In the full simulator
- • Month 6 and month 10 progress, actual costs and commitments
- • Earned value, CPI and SPI, and three EAC methods
- • Change requests and risk events that hit your forecast
- • Beginner, intermediate and advanced versions of every exercise
- • Downloadable datasets for Excel