Proposed Methodology forTechnical Due Diligence Assessment of Wind Farm Projects

Abstract: Technical Due Diligence (TDD) is an extensive document review process in which a complete assessment is made of all potential risks to the realisation or successful operation of a wind farm project. The goal of this assessment is to determine thecommercial feasibility of the proposed project. TDD assessments are extensive undertakings, and potentially subject to the bias of the individual reviewer. This aim of this research project is to develop a methodology to assist in the completion of TDD reviews at the host company for this research project, Mecal Wind Farm Services B.V., which will reduce the subjectivity of the TDD analysis and allow for objective comparison between different projects. A methodology was developed which assists the TDD assessment process. This methodology uses the combined judgements of individual reviewer and project managerto apply a weighting to the risk assessments carried out as part of the review. Aspreadsheet tool was created, based on this methodology, to assist the completion ofTDD assessments at Mecal.The spread sheet tool was validated by reference to historic project data at Mecal. The output of the tool compared well with the outcome of the project, proving that theconcept and methodology of the tool is sound.