Solar Maverick Podcast SMP 34: The importance of solar estimating in the construction of a solar project
Episode Summary
Juan Truyol is a former co-worker of Benoy and Suzanne’s and they reunite on this week’s episode to discuss Juan’s current role as project estimator at Strata Solar, one of the top 5 turnkey EPC solar contractors in the US. They get into what exactly a project cost estimator does and why they are important to the solar industry.
About our Guest:
Juan Truyol’s experience includes the role of Director of System Design and Turnkey Estimating for Vanguard Energy Partners. Mr. Truyol received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Master of Science in Infrastructure and Construction Management from NJIT, Newark New Jersey. Juan has over 12 years of experience in heavy construction, primarily as field level site civil (five years) and his last seven years in solar design and estimating. Juan represents the C&I department of Strata Solar, one of the top 5 turnkey solar EPC contractors in the US.
Through his years at The Conti Group and Cruz Construction, his site civil experience includes utility projects, concrete dam reconstruction, micro-tunneling, airport runway, environmental remediation sites, and demolition in subways. In the early days of Vanguard’s history, Juan’s comprehensive knowledge of construction means and methods and pre-construction procurement enhanced Vanguard’s professionalism in regards to construction practices and protocols. His latter responsibilities at Vanguard had required him to interact daily with a wide assortment of subcontractors and equipment suppliers. Such interaction has allowed Juan to become a very familiar player in the Mid-Atlantic regional territory.
Benoy Thanjan
Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy and he is also an advisor for several solar startup companies. Reneu Energy is a premier international solar energy consulting firm and developer and the company focuses on developing commercial and industrial solar and utility scale solar plus storage projects. The company also sources financing for solar projects and hedges energy and environmental commodities. Reneu Energy has brokered $27 million in environmental commodities transactions.
Benoy received his first experience in Finance as an intern at D.E. Shaw & Co., which is a global investment firm with 37 billion dollars in investment capital. Before founding Reneu Energy, he was the SREC Trader in the Project Finance Group for SolarCity which merged with Tesla in 2016. He originated SREC trades with buyers and co-developed their SREC monetization and hedging strategy with the senior management of SolarCity to move into the east coast markets. Benoy also worked at Vanguard Energy Partners, Ridgewood Renewable Power, and Deloitte & Touche.
Suzanne Waters
Suzanne Waters is an experienced solar professional with a broad knowledge of the industry, including project development administration, marketing best practices, financial strategy, and team leadership. Before joining Reneu Energy, Suzanne worked as the Business Development Manager and Proposal Team Leader at Vanguard Energy Partners, a national solar developer, and their affiliate firm, Vanguard Energy Capital. She oversaw proposal development and contract execution, and collaborated on structured finance for large scale, multimillion-dollar projects. In addition, Suzanne has extensive experience in many aspects of the PV industry, with unmatched enthusiasm for its capabilities and a BA in Economics from Rutgers College at Rutgers University.
Insight from this episode:
- What a project estimator is and what they do exactly
- How volatility and fluxuations in pricing of materials is handled in cost estimating
- What types of projects Strata Solar works on and what services they offer
- How the job of project estimator for the solar industry has changed over the last 10 years
- How to vet subcontractors and equipment suppliers
- How working for smaller companies helped Juan with his role at the larger Strata Solar
- What got Juan interested in solar after a long career in construction
- Some of the solar industry trends Juan is seeing right now
Quotes from the show:
- “We have to build the jobs in our head, do our due diligence go through the RFP (request for proposal), make sure everything protects the company as far a requirements, and put a budget together that’s going to be a qualified budget, that wins the project but also protects the company and the owner from any hiccups.” Juan Truyol, Episode #34
- “When you put your budget together, you say the budget is based on the couple of services that the owner required the contractor to bid, and you have qualifiers (inclusions/exclusions) that protect the owner and the contractor from unpleasant exchanges in the future. So, the tarifs would be qualifiers.” Juan Truyol, Episode #34
- “Some countries will pick the middle bidder to avoid the chance for change orders. In the US it’s more popularly the lowest qualified bidder. It’s not just the cheapest guy but its the lowest qualified guy” Juan Truyol, Episode #34
- “Ultimately the owner wants to make sure the contractor will do a seamless project with no change orders, in time, and in budget. That’s the goal. And that’s the goal of the contractor as well, a good contractor.” Juan Truyol, Episode #34
- “A lot of the utilities, as hard as they’re pushing, they can’t get to every single site. So some of the larger EPCs will develop a site and act as a developer and provide the site as they develop it and potentially the EPC contract.” Juan Truyol, Episode #34
- “One of the main factors for cost estimates is wages” Juan Truyol, Episode #34
- “You want to protect your company by asking all the tough questions to the potential subcontractor upfront.” Juan Truyol, Episode #34
- “For all the cost estimators and anybody that prices any job in construction make sure you have a safety budget.” Juan Truyol, Episode #34
- “Safety first. Safely always. Safety budget.” Juan Truyol, Episode #34
- “Some CEO’s and CFO’s role up their sleeves and they execute, but getting the full spectrum of views from everybody can give you a better perception of the solar industry truly is.” Juan Truyol, Episode #34
- Suzanne, Juan, and I actually worked at Vanguard Energy Partners and spent late nights doing these public RFP’s, printing out 5-10 copies, racing to the public bid.
- On the changes in technology for communicating (email, etc) in the last 10 years: “You’re saving trees but it’s more efficient and saves time for all of the parties.” “...and as you know, on the public RFP’s, it’s like a race. Basically the lowest bid usually tends to win.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #34
- On working with Juan: “Juan was very educational in explaining it which was great because I think that’s not very typical for estimators to do.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #34
- When you spend time with Juan you will see his passion for solar. He gets very excited about it.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #34
- “We try to get all facets of the industry. When we thought of estimating, we thought of Juan.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #34
Resources Mentioned - Episode 30 of Solar Mavericks
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Benoy Thanjan
Suzanne Waters
Juan Truyol