The CODOA (Contrat Ouvrant Droit à l’Obligation d’Achat) is an administrative document issued by local prefectures in France. It allows the recipient to sign a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with EDF at a fixed feed-in tariff (FiT), over a 15-year period.
The document itself contains the following information:
- Legal details about the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV);
- Park location;
- Estimated production per year (hours);
- Total power.
While this appears straightforward, the last item can be more complex than it would appear. Typically, when the CODOA is requested, owners are only required to provide a figure for the maximum power of the park (i.e. 10MW, 12MW etc.). This gives the owner flexibility to change the turbine type, the number of turbines or the power output – as long as the maximum output is respected (with curtailment if needed).
However, there have been cases Greensolver has come across where the CODOA requires the owner to specify the type of turbines and power per unit. This extra information can be prejudicial and ultimately lead to an invalidation of the PPA.
For example, we worked with the owners of a 5-turbine park (2.5MW each) with a CODOA granted for a total power of 12MW. This CODOA included an extra stipulation, however, that the park be ‘made up of 5 turbines of 2.4MW each’. Even though precautions were put in place to ensure the park would not produce above 12MW, EDF refused to sign the PPA because the unit power exceeded that stated on the CODOA. The owners of the park were unable to sell the energy it produced.
This kind of situation can be extremely problematic, especially for project finance assets and Greensolver strongly advises investors to thoroughly check the CODOA when purchasing projects. Greensolver can help project stakeholders to avoid these kinds of mistakes with its extensive experience providing due diligence and transaction advisory services.
