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As renewable energy projects grow in scale and complexity, they no longer fit a one-size-fits-all wrapped Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model. Instead, a range of multi-contract delivery models has emerged, with the best approach determined by factors such as scale, risk appetite, leadership, capability and market conditions.
At the core of any chosen delivery model is how risk is allocated, governed and actively managed across partnerships. The model must effectively manage schedule, cost, capability and capacity risk, to reach final investment decision (FID) and commercial operations.
We asked our experts to share their perspectives on how renewable project delivery models are evolving, bringing together contracting strategy, governance and interface management with a clear focus on people, culture and resource capability. They explain what it takes to manage risk to grow confidence, reduce uncertainty, and build enduring relationships across projects and portfolios that will operate for decades into the future.
"An integrated team can best manage the project challenges and best manage the risk."
Troy Burton, Managing Director, Program & Asset Performance – Australia
Aurecon's Troy Burton, Managing Director, Program & Asset Performance and Lorna Bishop, Engagement & Change Leader explore how successful delivery of complex renewable energy projects and portfolios needs the right contracting model alongside building successful delivery team cultures and capabilities.
3:05Troy Burton explains how traditional EPC models can limit innovation and certainty. Integrated delivery teams and split contracting better match market capability and capacity, strengthen partnerships, and build early confidence.
2.09Delivery risks are well-known, but people risk is often overlooked. Lorna Bishop says investing early in culture and capability builds strong partnerships, attracts the right people, and supports resilient, high-performing teams.
3:11Shifting from EPC enables collaboration. Troy Burton says an asset owner mindset, better matching contractors, and clear interface management drives certainty and long-term asset value.
Create cost and schedule certainty through considered contract and people risk allocation and clear accountability across multiple partners, for bankable projects that attract investment and entice the market to deliver.
Build flexible resource models to scale capacity and capability; at the right time across project phases with certainty; create local workforces; and transfer technical knowledge as needed.
Set up enduring partnerships founded on trust, shared outcomes and benefits for owners, contractors, stakeholders and communities.
Enable high performing teams and build momentum as renewable projects often mean framing up new entities seemingly overnight, and successful partnerships need to bring people into a multi-partner environment effectively.
Deliver long-term value with an owner’s mindset, where early decisions create value that extends well beyond construction and into operations, rather than creating a short-term fix to get through the next milestone.
Bring in the right expertise at the right time by aligning commercial, environmental and technical expertise to each phase of development, from power purchase agreements and early-stage planning and environmental approvals through to design, procurement, grid connection and commissioning, to achieve timely FID and commercial operations.
As renewable penetration grows, large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) and hybrid renewable-plus-storage projects face increasingly complex design, revenue, and operating decisions. Long-term value depends on getting the size, project configuration, service stack, and market strategy right. Our Energy Storage Revenue Optimiser (ESRO) is a digital tool designed to model and optimise the sizing, revenues, and operating strategy of large-scale storage and hybrid projects in Australia’s National Electricity Market.
ESRO integrates technical and commercial information to model a project’s performance over its financial life, enabling investors and developers to de-risk project viability and maximise returns. ESRO helps you with:
Power and storage capacity sizing
Compare hybrid configurations
Energy and frequency control ancillary services (FCAS) market revenue modelling
Commercial tender evaluations
Liquidated damages calculation
Valuing network support services
Successful organisations understand what is required to build the right culture, capability and processes across teams to effectively deliver increasingly complex, multi-party delivery models, while fostering relationships so that assets can operate for 20–40 years. Lorna and Troy explain what it takes to be successful.
2:18Culture can’t be built on the day funding lands. Large renewable projects create new organisations overnight, so early investment in people, trust and ways of working is critical for replicable, scalable high-performing teams says Lorna Bishop.
1:48Troy Burton shares how an owner’s mindset supports enduring relationships with communities, landowners and partners, with momentum seen in new delivery models with approvals, workforce mobilisation and contracts being let.
2:21We can be intentional about how we build trust. Lorna Bishop explains why investors back projects where teams collaborate, manage people and delivery risks, attract scarce capability and stay resilient through change.
As more developers build and hold long-term portfolios, delivery decisions must be made with the end in mind, both for construction, and how assets will perform and create value over decades.
At Aurecon, we help manage cost, schedule and people risk across wind, solar and battery assets, helping projects move confidently through approvals, reach FID and achieve commercial operations.
By taking a whole project lifecycle view – from early environment and planning approvals and power agreements, through to operations – we help clients make early decisions that de‑risk future gates, protect operating value, and support enduring relationships with delivery partners and communities.
Supporting early decisions on delivery strategy and overall program structure; wrapped EPC to split scope, alliance and hybrid approaches, that align capability and risk appetite with market conditions and support timely investment approvals.
Creating clear accountability, decision rights and active interface management across multi-package delivery environments. This can include an Integrated Project Management Team that acts as an extension of the owner, providing central governance and interface management to maintain competitive tension and delivery confidence.
Attracting the right contractors and partners, and providing procurement, tendering and contract administration support across complex contracting landscapes.
Helping clients establish integrated delivery teams in constrained or sensitive environments, with strong leadership, trust, and ways of working from the outset. This includes flexing resourcing and uplifting capability at key points to scale capacity, transfer knowledge, and maintain continuity across multiple parties and assets.
Establishing strong partnerships that signal confidence to investors and delivery teams, while building enduring relationships across contractors, advisors, landowners, and neighbouring communities that extends past project delivery.
Bringing together early stage environmental and planning and stakeholder engagement, power agreements, engineering, grid connection, commissioning and operations readiness expertise with an owner’s mindset, while navigating evolving regulatory requirements.
As renewable projects grow in scale and complexity, developers are adopting multi-contract delivery models. This can involve managing separate design and construction contracts for civil works, electrical balance of plant, and equipment manufacturing, among others.
Delivering renewable energy projects demands more than the right contract model. It requires confidence from investors, off-takers, regulators, contractors and communities that projects will progress through approvals, reach FID and achieve commercial operations on time.
At Aurecon, we work alongside renewable energy developers, investors and contractors to manage risk proactively, align multi-party delivery teams and create the cost and schedule certainty needed to confidently move through each decision gate.
By bringing together engineering, delivery, commercial, environmental and organisational expertise, we help clients allocate risk and stand-up delivery models that improve certainty, protect schedules and flex as market conditions and resourcing needs change.
"What I'm starting to see is that our partners and our contractors are now wanting to talk about people risks more and more."
Lorna Bishop, Engagement & Change Leader
We bring decades of experience delivering complex projects across a variety of sectors including Energy, Defence, Resources, Transport and Water throughout the Asia Pacific region through a range of contract models, supporting successful outcomes for developers, contractors and investors.
We’re often asked how to set up the right delivery and people models for successful projects and portfolios that will deliver enduring value. Reach out to our team below to discuss how the right delivery and people model can help you progress confidently through approvals, FID and into commercial operations.
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Managing Director, Infrastructure Performance – Australia
Engagement & Change Advisory Lead – QLD, Australia
Industry Director, Renewable Developers – Australia
