Pre-Disbursement Review of Construction Draw Requests in U.S. Renewable Energy Project Finance: A Standardized Procedure with a Worked Example ( Version 1.1)

Methodology Paper No. 1 — Financial Risk Control and Fraud Prevention Framework for U.S. Renewable Energy InfrastructureVersion 1.1. Revises Version 1.0 (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23225156) This paper sets out a standardized procedure for reviewing a contractor's construction draw request before a lender, tax equity investor or grant administrator releases funds. Every line of the request goes through four tests. A progress test compares claimed completion with the independent engineer's certification, with a dollar materiality limit for large lines. A corroboration test checks that certification against installed quantities and delivery records. A price test compares change-order rates with a median-based regional benchmark, with rules for thin data and a volatility guard for price shocks. An integrity test checks for duplicate invoices, over-billing, unapproved reallocations, undocumented stored materials and missing conditions such as lien waivers. Each test has a written threshold and outcome; compliant amounts are released on schedule and only flagged amounts are held.An illustrative worked example applies the procedure to a $15.3 million draw on an $85 million solar-plus-storage EPC contract. The procedure holds $1.42 million (9.3 percent) across four findings and releases the rest. The paper also provides a data template, a one-page finding template, a trend log, calibration measures, practical measures against residual risks, and a full list of changes from Version 1.0. The procedure requires no proprietary software. Released under CC BY 4.0.