Financial Appraisals and Economic Analysis

Challenge: A major renewable biogas facility experienced operational issues and concerning environmental emissions. The owner, a large international energy firm, sought approximately $74 million in damages due to its closure from the County and State of Colorado.

Solution: EPS conducted an analysis of the facility's technology, operational performance, and environmental emissions, providing insightful technical analysis of the facility, its regulatory compliance, and economic viability.

Result: The technical assessment and financial appraisal determined that the fair market value of the facility was effectively zero.

Challenge: The intellectual property of EPS’s client, an advanced coating technology, was alleged to have been misappropriated by a former customer, a Fortune 500 industrial manufacturer.

Solution: EPS investigated and validated the client's claim of trade secret misappropriation, conducted a comprehensive valuation of the intellectual property, and calculated the total economic damages, which included lost sales and breach of contract damages.

Result: The multiyear litigation resulted in a jury award of $190 million for EPS’s client.

Challenge: A large utility company and its parent corporation were accused of unjust enrichment through a bribery scheme that influenced favorable legislative changes, leading to unfair rate hikes for millions of customers.

Solution: EPS provided astute energy and electric utility valuation services, quantifying the economic impact of these legislative changes and uncovering significant damages related to unjust rate increases and overstated benefits of utility infrastructure projects.

Result: EPS's findings were pivotal in supporting the plaintiffs' case, helping to demonstrate the financial harm caused to utility customers, and contributed significantly to the legal proceedings aimed at obtaining restitution for the affected ratepayers.

Challenge: A technology company developed a coal gasification process and transferred ownership to a major energy corporation, which subsequently failed to remit the agreed-upon license fees, leading to financial disputes and losses for the original developer.

Solution: EPS provided an expert valuation of the intellectual property and conducted a thorough analysis of licensing agreements to quantify the unpaid royalties. EPS also uncovered concealed assignments and discrepancies in reported revenues.

Result: EPS's findings supported the technology company in pursuing compensation, highlighting the extent of unpaid royalties and ensuring clarity in the valuation of the intellectual property assets.

Challenge: Two energy development firms were in dispute over the valuation of wind project assets and alleged misappropriation of trade secrets involving wind data.

Solution: EPS investigated wind energy project development assets, assessed the contractual obligations under an asset purchase agreement, examined the claims of trade secret misappropriation, and appraised the financial impacts of the contracts and corresponding breaches.

Result: EPS's expert renewable energy analysis clarified asset ownership and appraised the financial value owed for the use of the project assets. This facilitated the rightful owner to secure compensation and successfully counter unsupported claims from the opposing party.

Challenge: A solar energy technology company faced allegations of trade secret misappropriation related to proprietary solar panel technologies, with conflicting narratives around the value and confidentiality of the claimed information.

Solution: EPS conducted an in-depth forensic investigation, analyzing whether the designated documents met trade secret criteria and appraising the economic value of the alleged misappropriated technologies.

Result: EPS demonstrated that the purported trade secrets were largely obsolete, publicly known, or lacked independent economic value, significantly weakening the claimant's case. This contributed to a favorable arbitration outcome by effectively disputing and vast dismissal of the $34 million in claims.

Challenge: A global energy firm faced significant discrepancies in the valuation of their first-of-a-kind IsoAlky Retrofit Project by a taxing authority, which did not account for atypical costs associated with the pioneering energy technology.

Solution: EPS conducted a detailed technical assessment and financial appraisal of the first-of-a-kind technology, distinguishing typical from atypical expenses in the $560 million construction, and applied fair market value principles to establish the correct valuation.

Result: EPS’s analysis demonstrated the proper taxable value of the construction work in progress (CWIP), significantly reducing the client's ad valorem assessment by correcting the inflated valuation initially set by the taxing authority.

Challenge: A steel mill facility experienced chronic materials handling and operational issues, including a catastrophic collapse and shutdown during a severe snowstorm.

Solution: EPS conducted a thorough engineering and equipment maintenance assessment, including site inspections and a appraisal of the equipment and blast furnace operations. .

Result: The evaluation determined negligible damages to the client, a controls and equipment supplier, providing a clear quantification of risks for the resolution of the dispute through impartial engineering and appraisal analysis.

Challenge: An energy technology developer encountered allegations of design defects and material and liquidated damages from a customer.

Solution: EPS conducted an in-depth forensic investigation of the gasifier technology, including engineering reviews and appraisals of the equipment value at different stages of its technology lifecycle.

Result: EPS provided expert testimony that demonstrated no evidence of the alleged defects, supporting a favorable resolution of approximately $70 million for the client and substantiation of the energy conversion technology’s continued fair market value.

Challenge: An oil field services company in the Niobrara-DJ Basin faced significant financial challenges from its business partners during a rapid downturn in crude oil prices, with allegations of management failing to anticipate and mitigate the market impact.

Solution: Leveraging expertise in economic analysis, EPS demonstrated the strong correlation between crude oil prices and demand for oil field services, exposing critical flaws in the actions of the business partners.

Result: EPS provided pivotal evidence about the energy industry's market dynamics, demonstrating the predictability of the downturn, which substantively informed the court proceedings and clarified the parties' financial responsibilities. This analysis enabled the client to recover the monies owed successfully.

Challenge: A dispute arose over ad valorem property tax assessments for natural gas storage facilities across multiple counties in Mississippi. The complexity of appraising salt cavern storage assets and opposing interpretations of economic obsolescence in natural gas storage midstream assets were litigated.

Solution: EPS astutely appraised the natural gas midstream market and property valuations for domestic storage, pipeline transmission, domestic demand, and export markets.

Result: EPS's impartial appraisal defined the accuracy of the County Assessors’ valuations, clarifying tax liabilities and compliance with jurisdictional requirements. EPS’s midstream asset appraisals established equitable assessment practices and informed future appraisal standards​.