CapEx & financing · Session 2
When conventional bank financing reaches its limits.
Rosalin (Energieforen) set out where the market stands on liquidity management, Simon (Finance Connect) brought the banks' view on corporate versus project financing — and Lukas showed live how both come together in one model.
Energieforen · Market perspective
Liquidity management: four levels of maturity
- “We don't have one” — information spread across controlling, sales and grid
- “We need one” — awareness of the problem, but no process
- “We want one” — pressure to act, looking for the right tool
- “What do you mean by that?” — the term itself not yet defined consistently
Finance Connect · Banks' perspective
Corporate versus project financing
- Corporate financing: fast and straightforward, but inflates the balance sheet — banks look at the equity ratio and the level of debt
- Project financing: separates the project risk from the utility; banks look at the DSCR (target ~1.2–1.3)
- Only 22% of energy utilities already use project financing — 65% would be interested
Why this is pressing now
The investment ramp-up is changing how banks look at municipal utilities
Investment needed across the industry by 2045
BDEW/EYof which is an open funding gap from equity and bank loans
KfW/PwCof energy utilities consider their financing secure in the long term
VKUPlanning horizon that banks now expect
Live demo · bdg
From the CapEx milestone to the bank's ratio — in a single model
Using a solar plant as the example (“Sonnenfeld Süd”), Lukas showed how CapEx milestones, financing and OPEX drivers hang directly together: move one payment by a few months, and debt service and liquidity requirements adjust by themselves. The output is bankable ratios in a scenario comparison — technology-neutral, with drill-through down to single parameters.
What comes next
End of Q3 2026 · bdg Office, Phoenixseestraße 12, 44263 Dortmund · 29 Sept 2026, 15:00 — An afternoon in a small group, followed by dinner together. By the end, each utility knows what it will tackle next.
A short update follows roughly a week later, before Q4 continues with a new quarterly theme (heat planning, most likely).
Contributors
Energieforen
Subject lead & market perspective
Finance Connect
Banks' perspective & financing advice
At the next event
be there.
The Circle continues — your email is enough, the calendar does the rest.