Is Your Consultant Recommending Direct Procurement?
When a consultant recommends direct procurement for utility-scale BESS, understand how integration risk shifts to the investor — and what to ask before committing.
Is your consultant recommending direct procurement for your utility-scale BESS? 💡
This is not about EPC being better than direct procurement, or the other way around.
Both can work.
But I’ve seen a pattern past years: a consultant advises an investor to go for direct procurement, and then that same consultant is hired to manage system integration and project delivery.
That’s not necessarily wrong. But the investor should understand how the risk changes in that scenario:
- The consultant manages the project but carries no contractual risk for system performance or delivery. At least not proportionally to the total project scope and value.
- Integration responsibility is split across multiple supplier contracts with no single point of accountability.
- If something goes wrong, the risk stays with the investor. Not the consultant.
An EPC carries integration risk under one contract. With direct procurement under a consultant and consortium contract, that risk stays with the investor whether they realize it or not.
Have you experienced this? I’d love to hear your perspective.
Related posts:
- EPC vs Direct Procurement for Utility-Scale BESS
- Why BESS Equipment Manufacturers Prefer the EPC Approach
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