
Podcast Archives - Oxford Institute for Energy Studies OIES Podcast – From Certainty to Volatility Beyond the Contract: Managing Risks and Opportunities for Renewable Assets with expiring CfD Support
Dec 3, 2025
Naz Osmancik, Managing Director of Energy Management, Markets and Risk at Reventus Power, sheds light on the challenges faced by renewable energy projects post-CfD expiry. He explains how the end of Contracts for Difference leads to increased price volatility and risks to equity returns. The conversation dives into the importance of early planning and robust hedging strategies, revealing how investors can optimize their portfolios. Additionally, Naz discusses opportunities for secondary investors and highlights the need for policies that address latent risks in the evolving energy landscape.
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How CFDs Stabilize Revenues
- CFDs stabilise generator revenues by topping up market prices to a strike price or reclaiming payments when market prices exceed it.
- This stability lets renewables access much higher debt funding and reduces revenue uncertainty for lenders.
CFDs Greatly Increase Debt Capacity
- Lenders assess projects with adverse scenarios and cover ratios, which caps merchant projects' debt capacity low.
- Introducing a CFD can raise assessed debt capacity dramatically (e.g., from ~25% to ~75% in the paper's stylised example).
Equity Returns Shifted Farther Out
- High gearing enabled by CFDs pushes most equity distributions to later in a project's life after debt repayment.
- That concentrates equity holders' risk on uncertain future wholesale prices, making projects a long-dated bet on power markets.
