Live Online - Financial Modelling for Renewables

Live Online Course for Financial Modelling for Renewables

Sector-specific financial modelling taught using best practice and the FAST Standard

Financial Modelling for Renewables focuses on the challenges that arise in preparing financial models for renewables projects: construction vs operations, seasonality, monthly timelines, P90 / P50 forecasting and financing. It is a modular course for analysts and financiers in the renewables sector who need to build, modify, or run financial models.

This 12-session course is ideal for our worldwide audience. Learn from wherever you are based in the world, with financial modelling experts.

Book and pay online for your place below, or contact us to request an invoice.

What you will learn

This course will teach you:

The concepts of P90 and P50 and how to apply those within the model’s financial forecasts
Approaches for taking annual inputs and implementing those into a monthly financial model and how to aggregate monthly models into broader timelines
Methods for selecting different draw down options and how construction phase revenues can impact funding
How to optimise financial models under both P50 and P90 cases
How to model Equity Bridge Loans, Cash Sweeps and Debt Refinancing, all integral parts of typical renewable project financings
About the challenges of converting a bid model into an operational model

Who should attend

This course is suited to participants who already have some basic Excel skills and aspire to, have recently started or know they are going to start building financial models in the renewable energy sector. We also assume that participants have a basic familiarity with the layout of financial statements (income statement, balance sheet and cash flow) but not necessarily how they are modelled.

Based on a template financial model with a monthly timeline, participants will cover – step-by-step – the construction phase (costs, income and financing), model optimisation for lenders and sponsors, equity bridge loans, cash sweeps and debt refinancing.

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Date

Format

Location

Duration

Instructor

Price

18, 19 & 20 Nov

Live Online

GMT timezone

12 sessions

John Dimberline

$2,019

18, 19 & 20 Nov

$2,019

Location

GMT timezone

Instructor

John Dimberline

Duration

12 sessions

Format

Live Online

Course Topics

Project finance fundamentals Model design Best practice fundamentals Generation

Applying seasonality and degradation

Revenues

Fixed PPA revenues followed by variable merchant revenues

Drawdown phase

Construction period expenditure
Sources and uses of funds
Drawdown of senior debt and equity

Senior debt interest and fees during construction

Arrangement fee, commitment fee and interest
Applying day conventions to interest
Understanding model periods and debt balances

Drawdown phase circularity

Concept of drawdown phase circularity
Creating the circularity and solving manually
Creating a macro to solve the circularity

Transition from drawdown phase to repayment phase Repayment phase: senior debt

Simple principal payment and interest
Debt Service Cover Ratio
Sculpted debt repayments to achieve a target DSCR

Repayment phase: equity

Dividends
Shareholder returns

Model optimisation fundamentals

Assessing optimisation using a Track sheet
Optimisation for gearing
Optimisation for revenue unit rate

Optimising for P50 and P90 scenarios

Fixing the repayment profile
Optimising at P90 and at P50

Find out more:

Financial modelling for renewables brochure cover

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Would you like us to come to you?

Expert teams delivering training at a date and place convenient for the group. Discussions can be tailored to suit the participants and course content tweaked accordingly. Train a group at the same time with no distractions, making it easier to implement modelling best practice.

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Our clients

I use my new found skills on a daily basis and can’t speak highly enough of the course and what it has given myself and my colleague. It has changed how we do all of our modelling in the company and has received really positive feedback from everyone that has used the model or reviewed the model.

Sally Brierley, Financial Modeller, FCC Environment

We were stunned at the difference that a standardised approach made. Our new Excel models can provide information that just isn’t accessible through an ERP.

Philip Whittingham COO (and former FD), Virgin Trains

The course was great. I learned so much and really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to using it in my own work. I would be very happy to recommend the course.

Eric Eastlund, Head of Analytics, SCIO Capital

From start to finish the team were very professional and demonstrated considerable experience in what they were doing. The end result is an exceptionally powerful tool, which is straightforward to use, and now forms the backbone to our forecasting process. I would have no hesitation in recommending F1F9.

Douglas McArthur, CA Group FD, Asset Alliance

[The instructor] was enthusiastic about the material and the course itself which created good engagement in class. I particularly liked the fact that we were consistently taking part in the course, rather than being "taught" we were facilitated.

Andrew Dias, Finance Business Partner, Stansted Airport

The Enterprise model is great value for money. We compared it to the other standard reporting systems available such as Sage and Oracle but the F1F9 solution was much cheaper and also gave us the flexibility to change the way we report our business as it grows and develops. It has halved the time our month end reporting process takes. We started out wanting a model for budgeting purposes only but when we saw what the model could do we decided to use it for actuals reporting as well as our rolling forecasts.

Charles Carolan, Senior Financial Analyst, Skrill

[The instructor] was absolutely excellent. Everything was extremely clear, the pace of the class was spot on. I thought I would come away being slightly better at reading models but actually now I would feel completely confident starting my own.

Emma Paterson, SSE/ Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited

The team at F1F9 were responsive, hardworking and helped us upgrade our model to be fit for purpose post acquisition. F1F9 took the time to understand our needs early in the process, met deadlines and were professional in their approach.

Investment Manager, UK Private Equity House

Thanks for the excellent academy which has so boosted my own modest modeling skills. F1F9's strong customer service culture is a big help.

Geoffrey Finch, Resident Adviser for Infrastructure Finance for the US Treasury Office of Technical Assistance - Government of Paraguay, Ministry of Finance

I particularly liked the setup of the online training, and the portions provided in each section. The ability to go back and review and exercise with the models after each training and even after a few training provided an excellent opportunity to really 'learn' the skills. The setup allowed for my own pace of learning and the time I was able to dedicate besides work to complete the training. I highly recommended the training to colleagues.

Hartmut Weissmann

Very useful tips and tricks, certainly helped me a lot in understanding and 'simplifying' the enormous models. Thank you very much!

Julie de Bock, Senior Advisory / Corporate Finance, BDO

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Course reviews

John and Neil were both excellent instructors--knowledgeable and willing to go above and beyond to ensure the class understood key concepts. It's difficult to suggest anything that they could have done differently. Everything in the course was useful; however, I came from a non-corporate finance background and sometimes struggled to understand basic concepts, let alone the modeling of those concepts. I think something that would have helped is a pre-course set of links that offer literature or readings on key concepts that will be modeled live throughout the course. For many, these pre-course links won't be necessary, but if we are covering all bases to ensure maximum absorption of the material for all members, I think this would be helpful. The course format made a lot of sense, starting high-level and then slowly building the model up. I noticed in between classes, the model would jump ahead and complete a variety of other tabs or line items and then the instructors would speak to those changes--this became particularly true towards the end of the class. I think it would be helpful if there was another "outside the class" video that could discuss these changes in more detail, thereby filling some of the gap in between classes. Also, we covered a lot of ground in the course and most of the class; attention was directed at what the instructor was doing to build up the model. An outline of what was covered in class would be very helpful in retaining the material, which can be used or referenced later on. This outline could be offered in addition to the model that was sent at the end of each class.

[name not given]

July 15, 2021

The instructorscalling on individuals was a bit stressful as I doubt everyone was able to give their undivided attention to the instruction 100% of the time. I was not prepared for there to be homework at the end of the sessions as I was in and out of the sessions for various meetings/calls, but that have the models provided after each sessions for reference was very useful. Believe it was mentioned that a TE course was already available. I think it would be beneficial to continue our training with that course.

[name not given]

July 15, 2021

Clear explanations, always open to questions and support! Some time might have been perceived as lost due to watching the instructur modelling the less relevant items/calculations during the timeframe available for face-to-face interaction. Way better to have it split into separate sessions within a day rather than 1 whole block - would have been difficult to concentrate for that long

[name not given]

June 29, 2021

Toby was clear and concise, he demonstrated the ideas using real life examples, which made it memorable and understandable. He also encouraged us to engage in discussion and ask questions. The emphasis during the optimisation sessions were on trying to offer the lowest tariff pice with the best return for shareholders.This is not relevant to me as the company I work for is an energy provider so we buy the energy we produce. It would have been helpful to look at some different types of optimisation. I'd also like to have got some detail on pre and post tax IRR.

A I

June 8, 2021

Really great. Very approachable and friendly!

David Manley

June 8, 2021

The explanations provided both by Toby and Aroop were very clearand the teaching during the course was great. The balance of theory and pratical material enabled megraps the concepts. Our interaction during the course was interesting and useful, particularly thanks to the diveristy of backrounds and experience of the participants. The attention that Toby and Aroop had to address my question has helped my understanding. The online format was particularly suitable for me because as a beginner, being able to watch the recording which was important. The ability to send direct messages while the course is taking place is also useful to pick up om point that can be clarified. Havign the shortcuts posted in the chat as Toby was modelling was very useful and helped in remembering them. Finally, slitting the sessions in 3 was productivefor me because I was able to attempt the assignments while also attend other meeting and do some other work during the day.

[name not given]

March 18, 2021

Both of the instructors were excellent and complimented eachother. They encouraged discussion during the sessions, added commerical insights whereever possible and also answered questions in full. The course was engaging which is often difficult online, and the sessions went by very quickly which speaks to the quality of the presentation. The one hour sessions worked well, as it was not too long sitting infront of a screen listening. This was backed up well through assignments which helped solidify the learnings from the sessions. Spreading it out across 2 weeks also worked well, as it ave time to digest + also pick up stuff from work in between.

Stuart Gillies

March 11, 2021

Both Toby and Aroop were very engaging and made learning (even virtually) a pleasure! Having the day split into three really helps with day to day workloads. Perhaps more presentation of the theory (powerpoint) and then moving into the model would work well, so students can understand the basics before seeing it excel.

[name not given]

March 11, 2021

John explained the material in a concise and clear manner. Questions were addressed and homework reviewed to ensure learnings were cemented. Excellent overall.

J P

February 8, 2021

Toby was an excellent instructor.

Jan Vondrasek

December 21, 2020

They were both really helpful and explained everything really clearly. The course format worked really well with the combination of the classroom training and the independent assignments.

[name not given]

December 18, 2020

Toby and Aroop were very helpful and extremely knowledgable on this course. There was good interaction with the class and explained the fundamentals and details very well.

[name not given]

December 17, 2020

Very good and simple explanations. Make it fun and simple to model. Some overlap with the basic Financial Modelling course and it could be nice to have more time on the more technical/more difficult parts of modelling. Sometimes the course was too basic as not everybody in the course had the basic financial modelling skills.

A H

November 12, 2020

The course was great. Thank you.

Marco Montesinos

September 25, 2020

The standard of the tuition was very good and has taken my knowledge base far beyond where it had previously been in terms of financial modelling. I have previously used financial modelling for feasibility purposes only and not generally (beyond at a simple level) considered all the debt repayment options. I certainly had not considered the use fo equity bridge loans although I now understand the value of this option. Overall, the course has provided a great insight into the financial modelling world and whilst I may not utilise every aspect of the knowledge gained it has emphasised the need to work with a standardised approach (FASTstandard) and the need to model transparency.

C P

July 23, 2020

All very good.

[name not given]

July 23, 2020

It would help to know how various revenue types in UK and Europe are modelled and also how revenue streams differ based on different technology types (wind vs volar vs biomass). Perhaps this could be covered as a separate written note as an addendum to the case study writeup. Therefore the class would still cover one case using one technology as was done in this course (wind would be best as its the biggest source of renewable generation in this part of the world). But as reference other revenue types and technologies can be described.

R R

July 23, 2020

The format was very good. I think 3 x 1h is exactly the intensity where a person can stay fully focused throughout the course. Having time to review the material in between days was an opportunity to digest the information. It was interactive and engaging, and I liked the small size of the class. I think I might even prefer doing such online teacher-led courses to a classroom one.

[name not given]

April 28, 2020

Great course overall. The scope was what I expected and I was particularly pleased with the instructor's flexibility to tackle questions asked during the course. Maybe one point I regret is that there is no support guide to get back to after the course that shortly covers the different main topics.

[name not given]

April 28, 2020

Response from F1F9
Just a note that we are planning to release an online version of this course - it will be made available to everyone who attends the in-person or live-online version of the training, and this will also apply retrospectively to people who attended before it was created.

August 19, 2020

I enjoyed the Live Online Tuition. I thought this format was well suited for the course given that we were given some time between sessions to do our homework and review the material covered. I also really appreciated the Q&A session that was organized following the completion of the course. Overall, I would highly recommend that course to my colleagues and friends.

[name not given]

April 28, 2020

8 hours in a row is long time to concentrate on modelling. It could be more valuable to do it over 3 days of 5-6 hours.

F K

January 15, 2020

The course is geared towards fully financial literate parties. From my perspective, there would be a role for a simpler finacial modelling course teaching the basics of FAST with feasibility stage finaces seperate from the complex finacial options provided in this course.

H B

January 15, 2020

Well-structured and well thought through agenda.

J T

January 15, 2020

Very good course with a lot of useful explanations. Course was easy to follow.

S T

August 15, 2019

In my opinion you could tell, that both Toby and Marc were experts in the topics (the Excel part as well as the renewable energy sector) and were able to answer any arising questions. The requirements and difficulty of the topics/tasks were adequate and the instructor had a pleasant pace, so that we were able to get a lot of input but still understand every detail. In general, Toby was easy to follow and both were eager to get everyone in the class to understand the content. I really liked how they structured the course - the balance of general information combined with the practical use in excel was very helpfull. I'd definitely take more classes with these instructors!

J Q

July 23, 2019

Very good instructor and teaching assistant. The audience was a very inhomognous group ranging from excel-illiterate to VBA programmer to head of project finance. Instructor and teaching assitant managed to overcome these obstacles very well!

M K

July 23, 2019