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Method

Feasibility and gate control

A renewable project goes through several investment decisions before it is built, from the feasibility study that takes it out of prospecting to secured offtake. We help the company take all its projects through the same phases and the same gates, with written gate criteria and a capitalisation policy consistent with them.

Aerial view of cereal fields and olive trees with a weather mast: the site at prospecting stage.The same site during permitting, with a new track, plots marked with stakes, a geotechnical drilling rig and a surveyor.The same site at advanced permitting, with the final layout staked out in rows, an access road and a fenced environmental monitoring station.The same site ready to build, with a perimeter fence, site offices, parking, internal roads, a laydown area with containers and a piling machine.The same site under construction, with piles, half-installed trackers, stacked modules and the substation being built.The finished plant, with rows of solar trackers, the substation and the battery containers.

Illustrative image

  2. Gate 1 · Feasibility approved
  3. Gate 2
  4. Gate 3
  5. Investment decision
  6. Commissioning

The same site, from prospecting to operation. The phases and gates are indicative: each company sets how many it has and what it calls them, whether gate 1, tier 2 or its own terms. Illustrative image, not a real project.

Many companies already have their phases defined, though not always in writing or applied in the same way across teams and countries. We review what the company already does, change what needs changing and turn it into a common model that any new project can follow from day one.

Our view

  1. 01

    The criteria for each gate are agreed before the project is studied. That way the committee decides in one session instead of debating the study for months.

  2. 02

    On returns, delay weighs as much as price, because in development it tends to be the most likely deviation.

  3. 03

    Capitalisation hangs on the same gates. When development and finance share the criterion, the balance sheet reflects the real maturity of the portfolio.

What we deliver

We put the model in place in six to eight weeks and test it on two or three real projects before rolling it out. It adapts to what the company needs and can sit alongside its own approval process.

  • The phase and gate model, with the criteria for each gate.
  • The gate 1 feasibility study, with its score and the recommendation to the committee.
  • The capitalisation policy, drafted with finance.
  • Templates for each gate pack and for the note to the committee.
  • Training for the team, and the indicators and meetings the company uses to follow the process, with our support if needed.

Agents and tailored tools

At gate 1, an agent builds the feasibility study from a questionnaire in blocks, answered with yes or no or with data, and turns it into a rating. At the following gates it checks the documents each one requires and the maturity of the project, and prepares a report for management with its recommendation. The decision stays with the committee.

Simulated demo with fictitious data. At gate 1, an agent builds the feasibility study for Campo Lucero, a hybrid solar and battery project, and gives it a rating. At gate 2 it checks the documents and the maturity of the project and prepares the report for management. The committee decides.

What it connects to

The feasibility study produces the first risk register, the CAPEX baseline and the master plan assumptions. Readiness checks each pack, the RACI sets who approves it and lessons learned correct the criteria. What is studied at the feasibility stage reaches the other processes without being recalculated, which is what we mean by a connected PMO.

What the diagnostic checks in this area

  • Do all projects in the portfolio go through the same phases, and does every gate have written criteria?
  • Does the policy for capitalising development costs rest on those same gates?

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The other areas

  1. 00

    Governance and RACI

    We help the company set who decides, who carries out and who is accountable for each task in its projects, with a RACI matrix shared across the portfolio. It is the base on which the other processes rest.

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  2. 02

    Risk management

    We implement a risk register common to the whole portfolio, opened at feasibility, that gives each risk an owner and a plan and, where appropriate, a specific share of the contingency.

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  3. 03

    Planning

    We structure planning around a master plan per technology and country, from which each project's schedule is derived, and an update cycle designed to detect delays while they can still be recovered.

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  4. 04

    CAPEX control

    We organise CAPEX control around the final cost forecast, updated every month line by line and connected to the financial model, so that every deviation is read in terms of returns and answered with a quantified recovery plan.

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  5. 05

    Contracts and changes

    We put order into the contracting strategy, the interfaces between contractors and the control of changes and claims, so that every variation is valued before it is approved and no contractual deadline expires without anyone noticing.

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  6. 06

    Readiness

    We design the readiness lists for the three gates of a project, into development, construction and operations, so that each step is signed off by the person accountable for it and any gaps the project moves ahead with have an owner and a date.

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  7. 07

    Document management

    Dozens of companies take part in a renewable project and produce thousands of documents, many of which remain necessary for the whole life of the asset. We design the document management system so that this information is reliable from development onwards and arrives complete at every change of phase and every due diligence.

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  8. 08

    Handover

    The three transfers in a renewable project, from development to construction, from construction to operations and from the project to asset management, tend to be the points at which most information is lost. We design each one as a formal acceptance, with a package defined from the start of the phase and minutes signed by both the party handing over and the party receiving.

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  9. 09

    Lessons learned

    We design the lessons learned process so that every significant lesson ends in a change to the company’s standards, such as a procedure, a contract template or a time or cost estimate, before the next project starts.

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