Price tag for troubled SAP project will skyrocket to nearly $1 billion, audit says

For one thing, National Grid "did not use vendors with a strong track record of US utility industry experience in SAP platform implementation," it states.

Initially, the utility hired Deloitte but later decided to switch partners, bringing in Ernst and Young along with Wipro.

Also, in choosing SAP as the new platform, National Grid had only "very limited discussions" with other U.S. utilities about their experience with it, relying instead on assertions of National Grid UK, which had already moved to SAP, according to the audit.

Moreover, "while Wipro had extensive experience in Europe, it had virtually no experience at the time implementing an SAP platform for utilities regulated in the US," it states.

Overeagerness on the part of National Grid also led to recklessness.