Risks related to financing, design, construction and environmental permitting are generally transferred to the Project Company in Brazil, and the Procuring Authority is then responsible for monitoring the construction progress and the Project Company's performance. The Project Company took on responsibility for the design and construction of the asset according to the specifications set out in the PPP contract.

The Procuring Authority approves compliance of the design to the specifications of the PPP contract, and the Project Company is then responsible for securing the required construction permits and environmental permits to deliver the substation. The Project Company is also required to comply with the requirements of the national grid operator, Operador Nacional do Sistema Elétrico (the Grid Operator), as well as the owner of the high-voltage transmission lines.

The construction phase was agreed to be completed in 22 months, which included the time needed to obtain the required permits. However, obtaining the required permits took longer than anticipated, resulting in a 194-day delay. As a result, the Project Company incurred additional costs due to construction delays until the project entered operation. 

The PPP contract has a fixed 30-year term (encompassing the construction and operations phases), and so any delays in construction reduce the length of the operations phase without an extension of time to the contract duration. In response to the delays during the construction phase, the Project Company requested that the contract duration be extended such that the operations phase remained of the length originally envisioned at commercial close. This was not accepted by the Procuring Authority, and the claim is now closed.