Powering Tomorrow: Portfolio Management

At Low Carbon, we turn renewable energy ambitions into reality and deliver projects through development, construction and into their operational life.

Our Head of the Portfolio Team, Steven Hughes, shares how we de-risk projects, secure the right equipment, and work closely with contractors to build efficiently and deliver on time. From clearing the ground to energising the grid, Stephen shows how our hands-on approach ensures every project is built to budget, built to last, and built to power a more sustainable future.

Full Transcript:

My name is Steven Hughes. I'm the Head of the Portfolio Team at Low Carbon.

We are responsible for delivering projects from the beginning of construction through all of the operational life.

So the first stage of getting megawatts of the grid, in my part of the business is de-risking the project and procuring the equipment that we need to build the projects with and tying all of our contractors. And once we've done that, we can reach financial close on the project.

Once we've done that, we can start building the project, which means mobilising contractors to sites. They then clear the ground. They start building roads, putting cables in the ground, putting panels in the ground, and then start connecting commissioning activity before we finally energize the grid. Once we can do that, we can export power onto the grid and we can start getting paid.

The way Low Carbon contract most of the work out supply chain, all the efficiency that we can benefit from when projects come through good management of our contractors.

So we spend a great deal of time working with contractors, monitoring their activity, auditing them on site, making sure they're keeping to program, keeping to cost, delivering projects on time and on budget.