Energy Investment Analysis and Planning Training Course

Duration 10 days 20 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Investment Analysts, Treasury Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-TI-014

Before you join: Participants should understand basic financial statements, percentage calculations and the time value of money.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Energy investment decisions require more than estimating construction cost and expected output. Sponsors, lenders, treasury teams and investment committees must test whether a proposed power plant, renewable portfolio, transmission asset, fuel facility or energy-efficiency programme can generate acceptable risk-adjusted returns. They need defensible assumptions on demand, resource availability, tariffs, operating costs, taxes, financing terms, carbon exposure and project risks before committing capital.

This course develops the practical analysis and planning skills required to assess energy-sector investment projects from initial concept through investment approval. Participants build project cash flows, estimate capital and operating expenditure, model debt and equity financing, calculate WACC, NPV, IRR and DSCR, and test sensitivity to key assumptions. The course also covers market assessment, technical and commercial due diligence, fiscal regimes, risk registers, Monte Carlo simulation, sustainability requirements, portfolio prioritisation and investment governance.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with worked energy cases, team-based model reviews, investment-committee simulations and individual application planning. Participants develop a structured project case throughout the programme, using realistic assumptions for generation, renewables, networks, storage, oil and gas, or industrial energy projects. They leave with an investment case pack containing a financial model structure, risk analysis, due-diligence checklist, decision-gate plan and investment memorandum outline.

The course suits finance and treasury professionals, project developers, engineers, investment analysts, corporate planners and public-sector officials who contribute to energy capital decisions. It is particularly useful for professionals reviewing project proposals, preparing approval papers, allocating capital or negotiating project financing.

What you will be able to do

  • Build an integrated energy-project financial model using discounted cash flow methods
  • Estimate capital expenditure, operating expenditure, revenues and working-capital requirements
  • Calculate WACC, NPV, IRR, payback period and debt service coverage ratios
  • Assess market, technical, commercial, regulatory and fiscal assumptions for investment cases
  • Construct sensitivity, scenario and Monte Carlo analyses for material project uncertainties
  • Evaluate debt, equity, project-finance and blended-finance funding structures
  • Prepare an investment memorandum with decision gates, risks and recommendations
  • Present and defend a complete energy investment case before an investment committee

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce defensible energy investment cases for senior approval
  • Model project cash flows with transparent assumptions and audit trails
  • Challenge contractor, developer and adviser financial assumptions
  • Assess financing terms against project debt-service capacity
  • Present investment recommendations with quantified risks and decision triggers

For your organisation

  • Improves consistency of capital-allocation decisions for energy assets
  • Reduces approval risk from incomplete cost, revenue and funding assumptions
  • Strengthens scrutiny of developer models and external feasibility studies
  • Identifies downside exposures before financial close or capital commitment
  • Creates clearer investment papers for boards, lenders and public authorities

Course modules

20 modules over 10 days

Participants can frame an energy investment decision around value drivers, stakeholders and approval criteria.

  • Investment decision gates from opportunity screening through final investment decision
  • Energy asset classes: generation, networks, storage, fuels and efficiency
  • Sponsor, lender, regulator and offtaker interests within project decisions
  • Value drivers linking technical performance, commercial terms and cash flows
  • Strategic fit tests against capital allocation priorities and risk appetite
  • Investment committee criteria for return, resilience, liquidity and public value

Participants can assess the market assumptions that underpin energy-project revenues.

  • Market structure: regulated tariffs, merchant prices and bilateral contracts
  • Demand forecasts using consumption data, load profiles and growth assumptions
  • Supply-demand balance analysis for capacity, energy and ancillary services
  • Price curves built from tariff schedules, contracts and market forecasts
  • Offtake agreements: take-or-pay, capacity payments and indexation clauses
  • Revenue risks from curtailment, congestion, dispatch and counterparty default

Participants can define a project scope and establish the assumptions required for appraisal.

  • Project charter defining objectives, boundaries, sponsors and approval milestones
  • Work breakdown structure for development, construction and operating phases
  • Base-case assumptions register with sources, owners and update dates
  • Project timeline linking permits, procurement, construction and commissioning
  • Alternative concepts compared through capacity, technology and location choices
  • Decision criteria translated into measurable financial and non-financial indicators

Participants can translate technical performance assumptions into project inputs.

  • Capacity factor estimates using resource data, availability and planned outages
  • Energy yield calculations from installed capacity and operating-hour assumptions
  • Heat-rate and fuel-consumption calculations for thermal generation projects
  • Battery degradation curves linked to usable capacity and replacement schedules
  • Transmission losses, system constraints and delivered-energy assumptions
  • Technical due-diligence questions for design maturity, warranties and performance tests

Participants can construct a time-phased capital expenditure estimate for an energy project.

  • Classifying development, EPC, owner, contingency and financing costs
  • Bottom-up cost estimates from quantities, unit rates and supplier quotations
  • Cost escalation using inflation indices, currency exposure and procurement timing
  • Contingency analysis based on estimate maturity and risk-register evidence
  • Capital expenditure schedules aligned with procurement and construction milestones
  • Sunk-cost treatment within investment decisions and project cancellation reviews

Participants can forecast operating cash requirements over an asset lifecycle.

  • Fixed and variable operating costs separated by operational driver
  • Maintenance strategies: corrective, preventive and condition-based cost assumptions
  • Fuel, consumables and grid-charge forecasts linked to output volumes
  • Working-capital schedules for receivables, payables, inventory and cash buffers
  • Major maintenance and replacement capital scheduled over asset life
  • Decommissioning obligations, restoration costs and terminal-value assumptions

Participants can model energy-project revenues under different commercial arrangements.

  • Tariff revenue models using volume, price, escalation and collection assumptions
  • Power purchase agreement provisions affecting revenue certainty and timing
  • Merchant revenue forecasts using hourly prices, dispatch and capture rates
  • Capacity, availability and ancillary-service payments incorporated into cash flows
  • Renewable certificates, carbon credits and environmental attribute revenues
  • Contract indexation formulas for inflation, fuel prices and exchange rates

Participants can structure an auditable project financial model with linked schedules.

  • Model architecture separating inputs, calculations, outputs and checks
  • Timeline conventions for development, construction, operations and financing periods
  • Integrated income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet logic
  • Sign conventions, units, currencies and inflation bases documented consistently
  • Error checks for balance-sheet integrity, circularity and cash reconciliation
  • Version control, assumption logs and model-review responsibilities

Participants can select and justify discount rates for energy investment appraisal.

  • Time value of money applied to staged energy-project cash flows
  • Weighted average cost of capital calculated from debt and equity inputs
  • CAPM inputs: risk-free rate, beta, equity premium and country risk
  • Cost of debt estimated from benchmark rates, spreads and fees
  • Nominal and real discount rates matched to corresponding cash flows
  • Project-specific risk adjustments without double counting scenario risks

Participants can calculate and interpret core financial measures for project selection.

  • Net present value calculated from free cash flow forecasts
  • Internal rate of return limitations for non-standard project cash flows
  • Modified internal rate of return for reinvestment-rate assumptions
  • Payback and discounted payback interpreted alongside value-based measures
  • Profitability index used for capital rationing and project ranking
  • Economic versus financial analysis for public and regulated investments

Participants can compare funding structures and their effects on project returns.

  • Corporate finance versus non-recourse project-finance funding structures
  • Debt sizing from debt service coverage ratio requirements
  • Equity contributions scheduled against construction draws and lender conditions
  • Construction debt, term loans and refinancing assumptions modelled
  • Reserve accounts for debt service, maintenance and operating liquidity
  • Blended finance instruments: grants, guarantees, concessional loans and viability-gap support

Participants can incorporate fiscal obligations and incentives into project cash flows.

  • Corporate income tax schedules using taxable profit and loss carryforwards
  • Depreciation methods matched to tax rules and asset categories
  • VAT, customs duties and withholding taxes included in cash planning
  • Royalty and production-sharing mechanisms for upstream energy investments
  • Investment tax credits, accelerated depreciation and renewable incentives
  • Fiscal-stability clauses assessed for long-term project value

Participants can identify, assess and allocate material risks within an investment case.

  • ISO 31000 risk register covering causes, consequences and controls
  • Risk breakdown structure for development, construction, operations and markets
  • Probability-impact scoring calibrated against project risk appetite
  • Risk allocation among sponsor, EPC contractor, lender and offtaker
  • Contractual protections: liquidated damages, guarantees, insurance and step-in rights
  • Residual-risk assessment after mitigation actions and contingency allowances

Participants can quantify how uncertainty changes project value and financing capacity.

  • One-way sensitivity analysis for price, volume, cost and schedule drivers
  • Tornado charts ranking variables by impact on net present value
  • Scenario analysis using base, downside, upside and stress cases
  • Break-even analysis for tariff, capacity factor and capital cost
  • Monte Carlo simulation using probability distributions and correlated variables
  • Probability outputs interpreted for investment thresholds and contingency decisions

Participants can identify flexibility choices that change an energy project's value.

  • Option to defer assessed against information value and market uncertainty
  • Phased development structures linked to permits, demand and resource confirmation
  • Expansion options evaluated for modular capacity and network connections
  • Abandonment thresholds defined through operating losses and remediation obligations
  • Contractual options for fuel supply, storage capacity and offtake
  • Stage-gate decisions supported by measurable technical and commercial triggers

Participants can assess non-financial conditions that affect project viability and timing.

  • Permit register mapping approvals, conditions, authorities and critical dates
  • Environmental and social impact assessment findings translated into costs
  • Carbon-price assumptions included in operating costs and revenue scenarios
  • Stakeholder mapping for communities, landowners, regulators and civil society
  • Resettlement, biodiversity and water risks assessed through project commitments
  • Climate physical-risk screening for asset design and insurance assumptions

Participants can compare projects and form a prioritised energy investment portfolio.

  • Project ranking using NPV, strategic fit, risk and funding constraints
  • Portfolio diversification assessed by technology, geography, customer and fuel exposure
  • Capital rationing analysis under annual budget and debt-capacity limits
  • Dependency mapping for shared infrastructure, permits and market assumptions
  • Portfolio scenarios testing price shocks, policy changes and construction delays
  • Investment sequencing aligned with resource availability and organisational capacity

Participants can prepare decision-ready documentation for investment governance bodies.

  • Investment memorandum structure: recommendation, rationale, economics and requested decision
  • Assumption disclosures distinguishing verified data, estimates and management judgement
  • Decision-gate pack containing technical, commercial, financial and legal evidence
  • Approval authorities defined through delegated limits and escalation rules
  • Independent review protocols for models, forecasts and due-diligence reports
  • Post-investment review plan comparing actual performance with approved assumptions

Participants can defend investment assumptions and respond to informed project challenge.

  • Committee questions targeting value drivers, downside risks and funding gaps
  • Evidence hierarchy for management estimates, adviser reports and market data
  • Management responses distinguishing facts, assumptions, commitments and contingencies
  • Negotiation priorities for EPC price, guarantees, tariffs and financing terms
  • Conditions precedent linked to permits, contracts and equity commitments
  • Recommendation wording for approval, deferral, rejection or conditional progression

Participants can build, review and present a complete energy investment case with a justified recommendation.

  • Project case definition with documented scope, alternatives and investment objectives
  • Integrated financial model linking costs, revenues, financing, tax and returns
  • Sensitivity and Monte Carlo outputs supporting downside-risk assessment
  • Risk register, mitigations and decision triggers aligned with project stages
  • Investment memorandum presenting recommendation, conditions and capital request
  • Investment committee presentation defending assumptions, value and implementation priorities

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Energy project financial model template
  2. Investment assumptions register
  3. Project risk register and allocation matrix
  4. Sensitivity and scenario analysis template
  5. Energy investment memorandum template
  6. Stage-gate approval checklist

Who should attend

  • Investment Analysts — assess energy project returns and prepare approval recommendations
  • Treasury Managers — evaluate funding structures, debt capacity and financing risks
  • Project Developers — convert technical concepts into bankable investment cases
  • Corporate Finance Managers — allocate capital among competing energy projects
  • Engineers and Technical Managers — connect technical assumptions to financial value
  • Public-Sector Energy Officials — appraise infrastructure proposals and public investment commitments

Skills and tools covered

Project financial modellingEnergy market assessmentCapital budgetingProject finance structuringInvestment risk analysisInvestment committee reporting

Tools and standards

Discounted cash flow (DCF), ISO 31000, Monte Carlo simulation, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by worked calculations, sector cases, group analysis and model-review discussions. Participants apply each method to an evolving energy project case, beginning with project definition and assumptions, then building financial and risk analysis. Simulated investment-committee reviews test the quality of recommendations, evidence and challenge responses. Facilitated application planning helps participants adapt templates and decision criteria to their own project pipeline, capital programme or investment approval process.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic financial statements, percentage calculations and the time value of money. Experience preparing budgets, project estimates, business cases, investment proposals or energy-project plans is helpful. Participants should be comfortable working with spreadsheets and interpreting tables of financial data. Prior exposure to energy markets, project finance or valuation is useful but not essential. The course does not require advanced corporate-finance qualifications, programming skills, engineering design expertise or prior use of specialist financial-modelling software.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand basic financial statements, spreadsheet calculations and the time value of money. Prior energy-sector experience is useful but not required; the course explains the sector assumptions used in cases.

Bring a laptop with spreadsheet software and, where permitted, a non-confidential example of an energy project or capital proposal. Course materials provide the case data and templates needed for classroom work.

It is designed for professionals who assess, develop, finance, approve or oversee energy investments. It suits finance, treasury, project development, engineering, planning, public-sector and infrastructure roles.

General project finance courses focus primarily on funding structures and lender requirements. This course also develops the upstream investment case: market assumptions, technical performance, capital costs, operating economics, fiscal issues, risk analysis and portfolio selection.

You can use the model structure, assumptions register, risk matrix and investment memorandum format when reviewing live proposals. The methods also help you challenge external feasibility studies and adviser models more systematically.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first part develops the project case, cost, revenue and financial-model foundations; the second part addresses financing, risk, governance and the final investment-case presentation.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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