Analysis at Various Prices Used to Quantify Tradeoffs Between Grading & Steel

Problem

A Top 5 Developer contacted us between the 30% and 60% design phases—after the EPC/EOR contracts were in place—with questions about the grading volumes being proposed by a Top 5 EPC for their California solar project. We ran our SiTE™-Optimized preliminary grading analysis and produced very significantly lower grading quantities (~1.5 million y3). The EPC questioned whether based on our grading methodology there would be additional steel cost and production losses that would negate the grading savings vs their grading design. So we needed an analysis that would confirm whether this was true.

Solution

KiloNewton created an analysis at various prices (AVP) that included a range of grading, steel, and electricity costs to compare the all-in cost of our SiTE™-Optimized grading design vs the EPC’s conventional grading design. And that would not require the Developer or EPC to disclose specific cost assumptions for grading, steel or the electricity price in the PPA. Taking the grading and steel volumes and a representative PPA we confirmed that the preliminary results indicated all-in savings of >$10 million.

“KiloNewton was able to quickly devise an analysis for us that quantified the financial tradeoffs in the civil-structural design and confirmed the significant potential savings available with a SiTE™-Optimized design.”

Top 5 Developer

Senior Manager, Development Engineering