Consultancy

Strategy & Financial Decisions

Our key capabilities include technical concept development, financial modelling and risk modelling. Our expertise covers energy related projects, including power plants, utilities, food processing, electrolysers, water treatment plants, biogas production plants, power-to-molecules applications, batteries, storage applications and many more.

Our clients demand independent advice on topics like project return on investment, a detailed view on revenues and costs and a profound analysis of all relevant project risks.

Our research is supported by advanced data-analytics. We use artificial intelligence methods like machine learning, clustering, neural networks, etc. to build tailor-made simulation software. Our integrated approach consists of technical concepts, operation & maintenance models and financial modelling. Based on Monte Carlo simulations, we provide insights into global project risks.

Complex projects demand intelligent methods. Our added value becomes clear in multi-factor problem statements with customer specific user requirements, non-linear boundary conditions and complex trading schemes. We engage in the challenge to solve these problems based on understanding and quantitative modelling.

In numerous cases our financial models are used to support decision making. Our modelling quality has been audited and appreciated by financial institutions.

Project examples include policy advice on hydrogen production and import, financial modelling of power plants, estimating the value of flexibility and business case development of various energy assets.

Operational Excellence

Our expertise includes operation of energy production plants. Analysis of Operations & Maintenance issues, management advice, permit advice, contract negotiation and project follow-up are part of the services we offer.

Operational excellence involves improvement of operational routines. We develop tailor-made tools which do just that. Examples include explosion detection based on data-analytics, prediction of gradual degradations, optimisation of on-line cleaning protocols, etc.

Operational excellence also involves optimal process integration. When integrating a new element into a process, the question of size is important: which size or capacity will allow optimal operational conditions? We develop modelling tools to answer questions like: what is the optimal capacity of an absorption chiller to minimise overall costs and CO₂-emissions? Which storage capacity should be included in the process to reduce total cost? What storage capacity should be foreseen to gain the maximal profits of a Green Power Purchase Agreement?

Operational support projects developed by ENTRAS include biomass power plant operation, biogas production facility operation, operations & maintenance analysis of gas fired power plants and optimisation of operational routines like start-up and cleaning.

Contract Management

Delivering a project in time, within budget, exhibiting state-of-the-art performance and excellent availability starts with a contract. Safeguarding the interests of both parties increases success rate. Therefore we strive towards fair agreements with appropriate risk allocation and right incentives. We have extensive experience in setting up contract frameworks for energy projects from 1 to 1000 MW. Each project needs a specific contract set-up, either based on standard contracts such as FIDIC or ORGALIME, or tailor-made.

Contracting starts very early in the project development phase by choosing the right options. The spectrum of strategies is broad, from turnkey over managed EPC up to a multi-contract approach. Closely related to the design approach and tendering strategy, the contract strategy is a cornerstone of sound project development and should be set early in the development phase. We include bankability in every step of the process, since many energy assets rely on some form of debt financing.

Contract negotiation involves choosing. We deploy financial models and advanced data analytics to evaluate and compare different options. What is the value of the reduced cost of a long term maintenance program? How much difference makes 0,2% of efficiency? How much value does an increased ramp rate represent? We solve those questions. And the answers result in better contracts.

Financial structuring goes hand in hand with structured commercial contracts and high quality technical contracts. We offer technical contract management expertise for any energy-related project.

Examples of negotiation processes conducted by ENTRAS are a turnkey contract for a gas turbine plant with heat network, financial and technical contracts for the construction of a biogas production facility and turnkey contracts for an exhaust gas filtering system for a biomass power plant.