Eight questions your CFO will ask about a PPA

A PPA usually starts with procurement or sustainability, and operations has a say in it. The final yes often comes from the CFO, and the CFO asks different questions. Having the answers ready on one page saves months.

1. What will we pay, compared with today?

Compare like with like. A PPA price is in euros per MWh at the plant. Your bill is a delivered price, with grid tariffs, taxes and your supplier’s fee on top, and those stay on top with a PPA. See how a PPA works in Denmark.

2. What if market prices fall?

Then you pay more than the market for the power in the PPA. That is the other side of the protection you get when prices rise. Show both: a scenario where prices rise and one where they fall, for every year of the contract. A CFO will trust scenarios from a forecaster they know more than figures from the seller.

3. How much of our use does it cover, hour by hour?

A solar park produces at noon, your factory may run at night. The share of your hours a plant actually covers decides how much of your bill the PPA protects. See how much of a buyer’s hours solar, wind and hybrid can cover.

4. What happens to the power we can’t use?

In a pay-as-produced PPA you take the output when it comes. Surplus is sold back at the spot price, which is sometimes below zero. Ask how the contract handles negative hours. See negative prices and curtailment and pay-as-produced vs baseload.

5. How does it show in the accounts?

A physical PPA for your own use can often be treated as an ordinary purchase. A virtual PPA is normally a derivative, valued at market price in the accounts, unless hedge accounting applies. For companies reporting under IFRS, the rules for power contracts that depend on sun and wind changed from 1 January 2026, so surplus sold back no longer rules out the own-use treatment on its own. Ask your auditor early, with a draft contract in hand.

6. What security do we have to give?

The producer’s bank will look at your credit, and may ask for a parent company or bank guarantee. See what security a producer asks from the buyer.

7. How long are we bound, and how do we get out?

Ask what happens if you sell a site, merge or move production, and whether the contract can be passed on. The term matters as much as the price. See how long a PPA should be.

8. What does it do for our climate report?

You get guarantees of origin from a named plant, and the rules are moving towards matching hour by hour. See what a GO gives you, and what a PPA adds and the 2027 climate rules.

Where Symbolon fits

Symbolon is a PPA broker in the Nordics. For a buyer, we put the answers to these eight questions into one decision paper for the CFO: your hourly coverage, price scenarios, security and the terms that matter. It is free for buyers. See how Symbolon works for buyers.