Delivering New Build Due Diligence for Infrastructure Investment Company

Situation

A listed infrastructure investment company looking for opportunities in the renewable energy, energy transition and sustainable infrastructure.

The company decided to build a portfolio of AD plants processing (regenerative) agricultural crops, generating biomethane for injection into the natural gas grid and capturing the carbon dioxide for geological sequestration.

However, it required technical diligence to assess the proposed process and technologies, design health and safety considerations and technical components underlying the project business case. Also, environmental and planning due diligence assessing any constraints associated with the planning conditions and environmental permits.

Solution

Anthesis was commissioned to support to deliver:

• Assessments of a reference and site-specific AD plant (forming part of the future portfolio). Summary of the findings presented in a red, amber and green flag type of report.
• Assessment of process design, status of key contracts, project delivery structure and delivery programme, and business model.  Review of the proposed operator capability to manage, operate and maintain the plant.
• Review of permits, consents and other regulatory elements that could impact the plant construction and operation.
• Provide a review of the ESG risks related to the project in accordance with the Equator Principles.

Impact

No red flags were identified as part of the assessment. A few amber flags relating to points requiring addressing as the project moves to the next stage of the design and delivery were outlined.

Leveraging on more than a decade of experience in AD plants design, construction and operation, the lifecycle maintenance and capital plans have been reviewed and recommendations provided.

The development of the approach and procedures regarding ESG was identified as a work in progress, drawing on the wide range of complementary policies already developed and in place. This compares favourably with other approaches by similar developers in Anthesis’ experience.