Power Purchase Agreements

Overview

This is a working document, not a market report. It assumes you are about to sign something, or about to ask someone else to.

Power purchase agreements are priced as one number and negotiated as a dozen separate decisions. This guide separates them: what you are actually buying, how price forms and why capture rates broke the standard corporate PPA, which risks belong on which side of the table, and what a credit committee will and will not finance.

Written for both chairs. Every risk is read from the buyer’s side and the seller’s, because the price of conceding a point is only legible when you can see what it is worth to the person asking for it.

What this guide covers

Sixteen parts covering the full negotiation — the map of who sits where, diagnosing which of five market types you are in, choosing between physical, sleeved, virtual, retail and captive structures, what you are really buying, price formation and the capture problem, testing the counterparty, the term sheet, the risk register, bankability, negotiation sequence, execution and settlement, life of contract, pitfalls, a worked example across three archetypes and five years of settlement, accounting and tax, and endgame. Closes with a five-page tear-out field checklist, a market annex by archetype, and reference appendices including a clause concordance.

Who this is for

Buyers, sellers, developers, lenders and advisers negotiating or financing a power purchase agreement in any global market.

What you get

• Written for both sides of the table, not just the buyer
• Deal evidence from real transactions
• What This Costs You — the price of conceding each point
• Ask Before You Sign — questions to put to the counterparty
• Best-practice guidance at each stage of the negotiation
• A worked example: one project, three archetypes, five years of settlement
• A five-page tear-out field checklist
• Market annex by archetype, plus a clause concordance and glossary

Table of contents

1. How to use this guide
2. Part 0 — The Map: Who sits where in a power purchase agreement, and where the margin is actually made
3. Part 1 — Which Negotiation Are You In: Five markets, five different contracts. Diagnose yours before you draft anything
4. Part 2 — Choosing Your Structure: Physical, sleeved, virtual, retail, captive — what each one is actually for
5. Part 3 — What You Are Really Buying: Energy, shape, firmness, attributes and a hedge — priced separately even when quoted as one number
6. Part 4 — Price Formation and the Capture Problem: Capture rates, cannibalisation, negative hours and basis — the arithmetic that broke the standard corporate PPA
7. Part 5 — Finding and Testing the Counterparty: Running the process from either side, and working out whether the name on the other signature page is good for fifteen years
8. Part 6 — The Term Sheet: The dozen decisions that fix ninety per cent of the value, before a lawyer has drafted a word
9. Part 7 — The Risk Register: Eight risks, two parties, and the price of moving each one across the table
10. Part 8 — Bankability: What gets financed, what gets repriced, and what gets refused — read from the credit committee's side of the table
11. Part 9 — Negotiation: Sequence, leverage and the order in which to give things away
12. Part 10 — Execution and Settlement: Conditions precedent, commercial operation, and how the money actually moves
13. Part 11 — Life of Contract: Years one to fifteen. Reforecasting, disputes, amendments, and the renegotiation that is coming
14. Part 12 — Pitfalls: Fourteen ways this goes wrong, seven from each chair
15. Part 13 — The Worked Example: One project, three archetypes, three contracts — then five years of settlement, including a bad one
16. Part 14 — Accounting, Tax and Attributes: Derivative treatment, attribute integrity, and the tax position that decides who should own the asset
17. Part 15 — Endgame: Default, termination payment, assignment and what happens to the asset when the contract runs out
18. Tear-out — The Field Checklist: Five pages. Everything that decides the outcome, with nothing that does not.
19. Market Annex — The Markets, by Archetype: The perishable layer. Everything else in this guide is written to outlast it.
20. Appendices — Reference: Glossary · On sources · Clause concordance · Index · Sources and references

Research and sources

Includes 35 numbered references, a clause concordance, an expanded glossary and a full index.

Licensing

Single-user licence. For use by the named licensee only. Redistribution, resale, posting to shared drives or internal circulation beyond the named licensee is a breach of licence. Team licences covering up to five named users are available.