Return metrics
One-line definitions of IRR, Equity IRR, NPV, payback, DSCR, DSRA, MoIC, PI, WACC, LCOE and LCOS, worded as the application's own Formulas guide states them.
The financial model turns a run's dispatch result into an annual cash-flow stream, and reduces that stream to the metrics below. This page defines each one, worded the same way Help ▸ User Guide / Formulas… states it inside the application itself. For where each figure is shown — the headline lines, the per-year columns, the exported report — see The financials table.
The metrics
| Metric | Definition |
|---|---|
| IRR (Internal Rate of Return) | The discount rate at which project NPV equals zero. |
| Equity IRR | IRR of the equity cash-flow stream — EBITDA minus interest, principal and (when levered) tax, minus reinvestment, plus terminal value and any DSRA release net of remaining debt in the final year. Computed only when Enable debt (levered analysis) is on. |
| NPV (Net Present Value) | The discounted sum of project cash flows at the Discount Rate (NPV). |
| Payback | The year cumulative project cash flow first turns non-negative, linearly interpolated within the year. |
| Discounted Payback | The same measure, applied to the discounted-cumulative cash flow instead. |
| DSCR (Debt-Service Coverage Ratio) | (EBITDA minus tax minus reinvestment) divided by (interest plus principal), for the year — reported as a minimum and an average across the debt tenor. Only meaningful when Enable debt (levered analysis) is on. |
| DSRA (Debt-Service Reserve Account) | A reserve funded upfront alongside equity, sized at (DSRA months ÷ 12) × the first year's interest and principal. |
| MoIC (Multiple on Invested Capital) | The sum of positive cash inflows divided by the initial outlay — outlay is Equity plus DSRA on a levered project, Total CAPEX otherwise. |
| PI (Profitability Index) | (NPV + CAPEX) ÷ CAPEX. A PI above 1 is value-accretive. |
| WACC (Weighted Average Cost of Capital) | The after-tax blended cost of equity and debt — the equity share of funding at the cost of equity (taken as the Discount Rate (NPV)), plus the debt share at the interest rate net of tax. Computed only for levered projects. |
| LCOE (Levelised Cost of Energy) | Total lifecycle cost divided by discounted energy, in Rs/kWh, on a selectable energy basis — see below. |
| LCOS (Levelised Cost of Storage) | The same shape as LCOE, but over BESS-only CAPEX, OPEX and reinvestment, divided by discounted battery-discharge throughput — the cost of every kWh that actually passes through the battery. |
Discount Rate, debt and tax are all set on the 🏦 Finance tab — see Financing and discounting for the fields and their defaults, and Debt and tax for what turning debt or tax on changes.
The three LCOE energy bases
LCOE Energy Basis, on the 🏦 Finance tab, chooses what LCOE's denominator counts:
| Basis | LCOE denominator |
|---|---|
| Energy delivered to load (default) | Energy served to the Contracted Capacity |
| Total generation (solar+wind) | All generation, including exported energy |
| Delivered + exported energy | All useful energy sold |
The last two need an Export Price configured on the 📊 OPEX tab — without one, the model falls back to the delivered basis. See Tariffs, export and penalties for export pricing.
Two figures for IRR and NPV
The same run can show two different IRR figures, and two different NPV figures, depending on where you're reading them.
The headline Project IRR — the Financials tab's first summary line, the Dashboard badge, and the exported report's own summary line — comes from the project cash flow alone: an initial outflow of Total CAPEX, then each year's EBITDA minus that year's replacement or augmentation cost. It carries no debt, tax or salvage value. A second figure — the report's Project IRR (pre-tax), or the Financials tab's second summary line Post-tax IRR — instead comes from a cash flow that does include salvage value.
The same split applies to NPV: the headline NPV figure, at the discount rate shown beside it, uses the same debt/tax/salvage-free cash flow as the headline IRR, while the exported report's own NPV line, inside its FINANCIAL METRICS block, uses the salvage-aware cash flow instead.
The Dashboard's IRR badge and the Summary report's [ABOVE 15%] / [BELOW 15%] tag are both coloured against a fixed 15% benchmark, not against the Project Target IRR field on the 📊 OPEX tab. The two only agree when that field is left at its own default. See The dashboard.
Where to go next
The financials table
Where each metric appears, headline and per-year
Financing and discounting
Discount rate, LCOE basis, debt and tax fields
Debt and tax
Gearing, tenor, DSRA and post-tax analysis behind Equity IRR, DSCR and WACC
Tariffs, export and penalties
The revenue and cost lines these metrics are computed from
The summary report
The plain-text project report on the Summary tab, its fixed section order, and its six export buttons.
Tariffs, export and penalties
How the PPA tariff and escalation, the annual CUF cap, third-party export pricing, grid-charging cost and DFR shortfall penalties combine into a run's revenue.