Owner’s Engineering on a Portuguese ground mounted Solar PV Project

January 2020

Everoze was delighted to advise Mirova on the acquisition and debt financing of the 28MWp PV project in Evora, from ready to build stage to provisional acceptance certification. Services provided by Everoze included sponsor technical advice, owner engineer and general support to the construction management. The project was developed by Hyperion Renewables.

Everoze carried out a red flag Due Diligence at ready-to-build stage based on third party DD prior to acquisition and thereafter conducted lender construction monitoring.

Fabien Villacampa, Investment Director at Mirova mentions: “The Everoze team advice was strongly clearsighted during transaction negotiation, helping to assess the project and negotiate features that proved key to mitigate the issues that arose. Their technical experience and soft skills then substantially improved the project management and communication between the technical and financial parties, in a context of delays and what could have ended up in severe technical difficulties were correctly addressed and mitigated thanks to their support.”

During construction, the EPC contractor suffered financial difficulties, leading to a shift in the project. From this moment on, Everoze supported the verification of the recovery plan as well as an additional enhanced OE scope to check the progress on a regular basis and review all technical documentation, scope included amongst other things:

  • Inspection of the Astronergy facility in Vietnam
  • Laboratory testing oversight on site
  • Weekly presence on site
  • PAC supervision
  • Regular technical support
  • Contractual and commercial negotiation support

The project has been a challenging one with unusual complexities and Everoze was instrumental in getting the project to PAC. This support will continue until FAC.

João Cordeiro de Souza, Project Manager at Hyperion Renewables added: “The Everoze team supported the swift transaction of the majority stake of an RTB project with PPA and Project Finance in place and, as a result of the work in the due diligence, they were chosen as the SVP and the bank technical advisor until FAC. When the EPC situation and delays started compromising the success of the project, Everoze’s owner engineer engagement had a crucial impact on understanding all the technical issues, tackling these in a solution-oriented way and passing clear valuable inputs to the lender and owners.”

Everoze’s work has been jointly led by Mike Carter and Christophe Campistron supported by Michele Lauritano and Stefan Mau and other team members.