How Independent Technical Advisory Pays for Itself: ROI in Geothermal and Power Plant Projects
Introduction
When independent technical advisory / Owner's Engineer services are proposed on a geothermal power plant or a large-scale energy project, the project owner's first question is usually: "Is this an added cost?" That's a fair question — but it's framed the wrong way. The right question is: "How many times over does a single wrong decision prevented, or time gained, pay for this service?"
The stakes behind this question become clearer when you look at the industry's overall risk profile. A comprehensive 2025 study by Sovacool and Ryu at Boston University's Institute for Global Sustainability, examining 662 completed energy infrastructure projects across 83 countries from 1936 to 2024 (a combined $1.358 trillion in investment), found that energy infrastructure projects run over budget by an average of 40% and face average delays of roughly two years [1]. That's not a risk carried by individual projects — it's a risk profile carried by the industry as a whole. And the value of independent technical coordination comes down to where your project sits within that risk profile.
Where do cost overruns and delays actually come from?
As we detailed in our previous article (Independent Technical Coordination), the most costly mistakes in a power plant project usually arise at the technical interfaces between parties — the handoff points that no one monitors as a whole. These mistakes turn into cost in two ways:
A wrong or late-caught technical decision — for example, discovering after construction has progressed that an equipment choice or an engineering assumption doesn't match actual field conditions. The cost of fixing such an issue can be many times what it would have cost had it been caught earlier.
Delay in the commissioning process — every day of delay for a power plant means electricity not generated. Bringing forward the commissioning of a large-scale plant by even a week translates into significant additional revenue or savings for the owner.
AVS Energy's observation from the field: a single wrong decision caught and prevented through independent technical coordination can typically eliminate a cost in the tens of thousands of dollars; bringing forward the commissioning of a large-scale plant by one week can translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars, owing to the generation revenue that would otherwise have been lost [2]. These figures vary project to project — but the order of magnitude holds: the cost of the advisory service stays small next to the value of a single risk prevented.
How should this be evaluated?
Evaluating independent technical advisory as a percentage of project budget is the wrong frame. Comparing it against the expected value of the risks it prevents is the right one:
Across the industry, projects carry an average risk of roughly 40% budget overrun and delays measured in years [1].
Part of that risk can be caught early through independent monitoring of the technical interfaces between parties.
A single wrong decision caught early, or a few days gained, often covers the entire cost of the service — with the coordination provided over the rest of the project standing as clear net value.
This resembles insurance logic: an annual premium is paid against a risk you hope never materializes, yet the cost of a single incident can easily exceed years of premiums paid. The difference with independent technical coordination is that this "insurance" also works to prevent the risk — not just compensate for it after the fact.
AVS Energy's approach
AVS Energy's Owner's Engineer and technical advisory service is structured to deliver exactly this value to the project owner: catching costly mistakes and delays early, through tracking design specifications, independently monitoring construction milestones, and coordinating the commissioning process. A concrete example of this approach is the technical coordination role AVS Energy held — from planning through commissioning — on HEZ Enerji A.Ş.'s 24 MW Moralı Geothermal Power Plant project in Aydın, Türkiye [3]. End-to-end tracking like this is structured precisely to capture the early-warning and acceleration opportunities described above.
Conclusion
Treating independent technical advisory as a line-item cost is the wrong frame. The right one: given the industry's average risk of roughly 40% budget overruns and delays measured in years [1], a single wrong decision caught early, or a few days gained, can cover the service's cost many times over. The coordination provided across the rest of the project then stands as clear net value added.
FAQ
What percentage of the project budget does independent technical advisory typically represent?
This varies by project scale and service scope; the right question isn't the percentage of the fee but the expected value of the risks it prevents.
Can this return be measured in advance?
An exact figure can't be given upfront, but a reasonable expectation can be formed by combining the industry's general cost-overrun/delay risk [1] with the project's own specific risk profile.
Does this return only apply to large-scale projects?
No — preventing wrong decisions creates value on smaller projects too; but because the daily cost of a commissioning delay is larger on large-scale plants, the return can be more dramatic in absolute terms there.
Sources
[1] Sovacool, B.K.; Ryu, H. (2025). Study on construction cost overruns and time delays across global energy infrastructure projects (662 projects, 83 countries, 1936–2024, $1.358 trillion in investment) — findings published in Energy Research & Social Science, announced by Boston University's Institute for Global Sustainability. https://www.bu.edu/igs/2025/05/19/investment-risk-for-energy-infrastructure-construction-is-highest-for-nuclear-power-plants-lowest-for-solar/
[2] AVS Energy corporate field experience/observation — typical order of magnitude for wrong decisions prevented and commissioning time gained through independent technical coordination. Source: AVS Energy founding team assessment (September 10, 2026). Note: this is a general order-of-magnitude observation, not a figure attributed to a specific named project.
[3] AVS Energy project experience — HEZ Enerji A.Ş., Moralı Geothermal Power Plant (24 MW), Aydın, Türkiye. Source: AVS Energy corporate project records / persona document.
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