Roadnight Taylor announces huge growth for grid risk services

We’ve had an extraordinary surge in demand for our due diligence service that helps investors understand the grid connection risks in the projects they are acquiring.

Since August 2023, we’ve experienced a staggering 583% growth in our due diligence service, highlighting both the rise in transaction volumes in the UK, and the expanding market for our expertise.

Through providing due diligence our specialist connections engineers (Connectologists®) can help identify hidden issues that might delay the date on which projects start generating revenue, restrict capacity, or prevent revenue generation once connected. Their specialist insight can also uncover problems which add significant cost to the connection.

Hugh Taylor, CEO of Roadnight Taylor, attributes the growth to the uplift in requests from investors in solar and BESS projects, as well as wind farms, and also the significant increase in transmission connected schemes.

He said: “If a project is delayed or disconnected because of an unforeseen grid connection problem, then that’s often going to be costing the developer or investor millions in lost revenue after it has made the lion’s share of its investment. The sizeable numbers can tie development or asset management teams in knots for months, and has the potential for collateral damage, reputationally.

“We are finding ticking timebombs in many of our reviews, some of which we can help our clients to diffuse. We are also being parachuted in to address issues in projects post-acquisition where problems were missed. It’s not worth leaving due diligence to chance.”

Paul Bennett, Head of Consents at Centrica Business Solutions, said the importance of due diligence could not be overstated.

He said: “The timing and reliability of any renewables project’s grid connection is fundamental to its ability both to begin and continue generating income, and to deliver Net Zero. With the levels of investment in individual schemes being in the tens and hundreds of millions – and the connections landscape becoming increasingly congested and complex – our requirement for an extreme depth of expertise in connections due diligence has grown alongside our appetite to acquire quality projects.”

As part of the service, we help project leaders:

understand projects risks and costs (including outages and delays)
start mitigating any challenges/risks
protect reputational risk

Hugh said: “When developers or investors are looking to acquire projects, they want to be able to understand the values, the potential pitfalls and the key risks associated with the project before they acquire it. Ultimately, will the scheme you are buying match your expectations and the price you are paying for it? With many millions and potentially billions being invested in individual schemes, the cost of specialist grid advice is vanishingly small compared to the purchase price, capital expenditure – and the project’s anticipated revenues.”

To find out more about our due diligence, watch our webinar and/or listen to our podcast.