Excel DNA for Project Finance Modeling

Learn the core of project finance by building a financial model that reflects a project's cash flows and assets, and understand how a special purpose vehicle structures debt and equity.

Use a special purpose vehicle for the project to isolate assets and liabilities from sponsors. It improves risk management and investor confidence across infrastructure, renewables, and real estate.

Differentiate between equity investors and debt providers to understand their roles, risks, and rewards in project finance, including ownership, capital flow, decision making, and non-recourse financing concepts.

Explore non-recourse financing in project finance, where lenders rely on project cash flows and assets, with collateral-based evaluation, risk sharing, and liability shielding for sponsors.

Explore the due diligence process as a cornerstone of project finance, evaluating legal, financial, technical, environmental, and commercial aspects to inform investment decisions and risk mitigation.

Build a wind farm project finance model from an information memorandum, linking capex, generation assumptions, PPA, opex, and funding assumptions in Excel.

Build three-statement model (cash flow statement, income statement, balance sheet) using information memorandum and analyze ten scenarios to compute npv, irr, cash on cash return, and debt service coverage ratio.

Master Excel shortcuts to accelerate project finance modeling, saving time and reducing errors while enhancing data analysis and model organization.

Master the name manager in Excel to create named ranges for cells or ranges, improving readability, navigation, and formula integrity for easier maintenance.

Learn how the eomonth function in Excel adjusts a starting date by months to return the last day of the resulting month, enabling dynamic project finance timelines.

Initiate the Excel start file to build a project finance model, mastering basic formatting and technical inputs, including headers, column widths, and styled constants via keyboard shortcuts.

Define timing assumptions, units, and inputs for accurate project finance modeling by setting model start, development and construction period, and operating lifetime end dates with EO month.

Explore how flags act as conditional indicators toggling formulas in financial models to boost transparency, error detection, and scenario analysis, with a consistent flagging convention.

Learn to use the if, and, or functions in Excel to test the NPV threshold, declare profitability, evaluate multiple conditions, and flag project feasibility in a finance model.

Set up the model timeline in Excel, create start and end periods, and implement construction and operations flags with anchoring, formatting, and conditional rules.

Enable a dynamic model currency in Excel by letting users choose a home currency with a drop-down. Define list_currency and applied_currency named ranges to update unit values across the model.

Explore engineering, procurement, and construction agreements that define roles and responsibilities, deliver a turnkey project, transfer risk, and provide single-point accountability and streamlined execution.

Explore the isblank() function for scenario analysis in project finance modeling by checking whether cells are empty to keep base-case inputs intact while testing multiple scenarios.

Master the offset function to create dynamic ranges that adjust with input data, enabling multiple scenarios, cash flow projections, and key financial ratios in project finance models.

Integrate ten scenarios into a project finance model by setting up time-independent inputs, creating a live case dropdown, and using Isblank and offset to drive base vs. scenario calculations.

Clarify the difference between MW and MWh in project finance, showing MW as capacity and MWh as energy. Apply these distinctions to pricing, revenue projections, and financial modeling.

Compute full load hours by dividing annual energy produced in megawatt hours by plant capacity in megawatts. Use followed hours to assess efficiency and revenue potential in project finance.

Explore energy yield scenarios P50, P75, and P90 and learn how these probabilities shape revenue projections, risk assessment, and contingency planning in project finance modeling.

Understand standard uncertainty and its effect on energy yield distribution across P50, P75, and P90, where higher uncertainty widens the curve and P50 stays central.

Harness norm.inv to generate values from a normal distribution, using probability, mean, and standard deviation to build probabilistic projections for energy yield in project finance modeling.

Master the sumif function in Excel to perform conditional sums across monthly cash flows into sheets for project finance modeling, applying criteria for time periods and contracted or uncontracted revenues.

Apply P50, P75, and P90 generation scenarios to a wind farm model, configuring inputs like turbine count, installed capacity, availability, and annual generation using dynamic switches and data validation.

Explore power purchase agreements (PPAs) between electricity producers and buyers, detailing pricing, duration, delivery, and payment terms, and compare pay-as-produced and baseload structures for revenue assurance implications.

Set up PPA inputs with an on/off switch, 70% fixed-price hedged volume, and €50/MWh price, for a 10-year term starting one year after cod, including CPI inflation profiles and indexation.

Set up a time-based construction cost model with a payment plan, capex allocations, and first checks using conditional formatting and if statements to ensure accurate row sums.

Create a real-term electricity price forecast with three cases (mid case, lowercase, spare case) using dropdown inputs and a sumif-based approach to pull prices in euros per megawatt hour.

Implement checks at the top of an excel model, including integrity, signal, and master checks with references and conditional results to surface errors in the spv project finance model.

Learn to set up fixed cost inputs for opex in a project finance model, including land lease periods, commercial management, and CPI-based inflation.

Set up variable costs in euros per megawatt hour, include balancing costs around €1 per megawatt hour, and define a 2% of revenue variable land lease with no inflation.

Explore debt inputs by modeling loan and equity against construction costs, applying gearing checks, detailing a 60 million loan with a two-year grace period, 3.5% rate, and 1.5% upfront fee.

Set up equity and tax inputs, compute equity from costs minus debt, and apply a 6% IRR with 90% payout for 29 years and 100% at end, 21% corporate tax.

Interlink the cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet to assess a project’s performance and liquidity, showing how net income relates to cash via operating, investing, and financing activities.

Understand the cash flow statement (CFS) and its three sections—operating, investing (uses of funds), and financing (sources of funds)—to analyze cash inflows, outflows, and the project finance future prospects.

Explore the income statement (I/S) to analyze a SPV's revenues, including electricity sales, expenses, depreciation and amortization, and interest expenses, and determine net income and tax implications.

Examine the balance sheet as a snapshot of assets, liabilities, and equity, and understand how the accounting equation links them to solvency, liquidity, and financial health.

Master the min function in Excel to identify the smallest value in project finance data, such as the debt service coverage ratio across the debt tenor and equity drawdowns.

Model uses of funds within a project finance cash flow waterfall by linking construction costs to the three statements and applying a 20% payment in 2024.

Explore sources of funds in a project finance model by building equity and debt drawdowns, tracking undrawn funds, and linking funding to the cash flow statement.

Use the sumproduct function to multiply corresponding values across arrays and sum the results, enabling dynamic energy-yield inputs (P50, P75, P90) in project finance models.

Learn to model electricity generation and allocation between a PPA and spot market using flags, start/end dates, availability, and hatched volume in Excel.

Explore the index function for precise data retrieval in project finance models, using arrays and row and column references, and see how index and match create dynamic models.

Learn how the match function locates values in a project finance model, returns their position within a range, and supports exact, approximate, or closest matches.

Set up operational expenditures flags for fixed and variable costs in Excel, linking item names to inputs, establishing period start/end dates, and anchoring references for real-time Opex calculations.

Model fixed costs in real terms with no inflation, linking inputs to labels in thousands of euros, and compute euros per megawatt and variable costs as percent of revenue.

apply inflation to operating expenditures by converting costs from real terms to nominal terms using a CPI-based index, linking fixed and variable costs through index-match to reflect period inflation.

Learn depreciation, amortization, and goodwill, and how tangible and intangible assets are cost-allocated over their useful lives, affecting balance sheets, income statements, and taxable income.

Learn how to integrate depreciation and amortization into the income statement using straight line depreciation, linking capex, construction end, and goodwill to compute EBIT, taxes, and net income.

Model corporate taxes within an integrated project finance model, linking taxable income from ebita minus depreciation and interest to the income statement and cash flow statement, and tracking retained earnings.