Financing and discounting
Discount rate and escalation, LCOE basis, payment delay and working capital, debt, tax and the remaining tech-economic assumptions.
The 🏦 Finance tab holds the assumptions the financial model applies on top of revenue and OPEX: the discount rate, how the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) is measured, the cost of carrying delayed receivables, optional debt and tax, and a handful of further tech-economic factors.
Discounting and escalation
| Field | Default | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discount Rate (NPV) | 10.0% | 0.0–40% | Discount rate used for NPV |
| PPA Tariff Escalation | 0.0%/yr | -5–20%/yr | Annual escalation applied to the PPA tariff |
| Terminal / Salvage Value | 0.0% CAPEX | 0.0–100% CAPEX | Terminal/salvage value at the end of Project Life, as a % of total CAPEX |
LCOE energy basis
| Field | Default | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| LCOE Energy Basis | Energy delivered to load (default) | 3 options, below | Chooses the denominator the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) is measured against |
| Option (exact) | What it does |
|---|---|
| Energy delivered to load (default) | LCOE denominator is the energy served to the Contracted Capacity |
| Total generation (solar+wind) | LCOE denominator is total generation, including exported energy |
| Delivered + exported energy | LCOE denominator is all useful energy sold |
The last two options need an Export Price configured on the 📊 OPEX tab; without one, the model falls back to the delivered basis.
Payment delay and working capital
| Field | Default | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Receivable Lag | 0 days | 0.0–365.0 days | Days after billing before the offtaker pays; 0 disables the working-capital cost |
| Working-Capital Rate | 11.0%/yr | 0.0–40%/yr | Interest rate on the working-capital loan carrying the receivables |
| Late-Payment Surcharge | 0.0%/yr | 0.0–40%/yr | Interest the offtaker owes on overdue amounts, offsetting the working-capital cost |
| WC Facility Fee | 0.0% recv. | 0.0–20% recv. | Facility fee on the working-capital line, as a % of receivables |
Debt financing
| Field | Default | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enable debt (levered analysis) (checkbox) | off | — | Turns on the 5 debt fields below; they are disabled while unchecked |
| Gearing (Debt) | 70.0% CAPEX | 0.0–95% CAPEX | Debt as a % of total CAPEX |
| Interest Rate | 9.0%/yr | 0.0–25%/yr | Loan interest rate |
| Repayment Tenor | 15 years | 1–30 years | Equal-principal repayment period |
| Moratorium | 0 years | 0–10 years | Years before repayment begins |
| DSRA | 0 months | 0–24 months | Debt-Service Reserve Account, in months of debt service |
Tax and depreciation
| Field | Default | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enable tax (post-tax analysis) (checkbox) | off | — | Turns on the tax fields below; they are disabled while unchecked |
| Corporate Tax Rate | 25.17% | 0.0–50% | Normal corporate tax rate |
| MAT Rate | 17.16% | 0.0–30% | Minimum Alternate Tax rate |
| Tax Depreciation (WDV / Straight-line) | WDV | WDV, Straight-line | Depreciation method for the tax cash-flow |
| WDV Dep. Rate | 40.0%/yr | 0.0–100%/yr | Written-Down-Value depreciation rate |
Debt and Tax are both off by default, so results match the simple pre-tax project model unless you turn them on.
Advanced tech-economic
| Field | Default | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plant Availability | 100.0% | 1–100% | Plant availability factor applied in the financial model |
| Insurance | 0.0% CAPEX/yr | 0.0–5% CAPEX/yr | Annual insurance cost as a % of total CAPEX |
| BESS Cost Decline (augment.) | 0.0%/yr | 0.0–20%/yr | Annual decline applied to the BESS unit cost used for augmentation tranches |
Where to go next
OPEX, revenue and penalties
Annual O&M and its escalation, the PPA tariff and shortfall penalty, the CUF cap, 3rd-party export pricing, grid charging, and the Optimise target IRR.
How dispatch works
The 15-minute annual simulation behind Simulate and Optimise, and the five rules that decide when the battery charges, discharges or idles.