Urban Grid Case Study

Powering Renewable Energy Finance: Urban Grid’s Strategic Shift to OneStream

Urban Grid Holdings LLC is a leading renewable energy project developer specializing in utility-scale solar power plants. With over a decade of expertise, Urban Grid has been instrumental in taking solar and energy storage projects through the full development process, from site acquisition to interconnection, permitting, and commercialization. The company serves a wide array of clients across the United States, consistently demonstrating its commitment to advancing renewable energy solutions.

Challenges

Urban Grid faced several operational and financial management challenges that necessitated the implementation of a more robust and scalable financial planning, analytics, and consolidation and reporting system. Key issues included:

• Recent ERP Implementation: Urban Grid had recently implemented NetSuite as their ERP system, which required integration with other financial management tools.
• Frequent Dimension Member Additions: The company frequently added new dimension members, which complicated financial reporting.
• Previous Excel-Only Consolidation: Prior to OneStream, all consolidations were performed manually in Excel, leading to inefficiencies and a higher risk of errors.
• Complex Ownership Structures: Urban Grid's complex company ownership structure, with frequent movements during development projects, required sophisticated consolidation capabilities.
• Complex Cash Flows: The company's intricate cash flow structures necessitated more detailed and automated reporting processes.
• Reporting Requirements: As a subsidiary of Brookfield Renewables, Urban Grid needed to comply with stringent reporting standards and SOX compliance requirements.
• Lack of Insight Into Data: The company had limited ability to have quick insights into existing financial data, leading to disjointed financial planning and analysis.

Solution

Urban Grid partnered with MindStream Analytics to implement OneStream as their new financial planning, analytics, consolidation and reporting solution. The implementation addressed the following areas:

• ERP Integration: MindStream integrated Urban Grid's NetSuite ERP with OneStream using an API call from a saved search. This integration allowed for seamless data flow and automated updates, particularly in bringing in new dimension members.
• Organizational Structuring: The OneStream implementation included an "org by period" feature, enabling Urban Grid to consolidate entities under the parent company only for designated periods. This approach aligned with their complex ownership structures and frequent changes during development projects.
• Non-Consolidating Interest Calculations: MindStream added non-consolidating interest calculations for both the Income Statement and Balance Sheet, including a Retained Earnings Rollforward. This feature ensured accurate financial reporting for all stakeholders.
• Detailed Cash Flow Reporting: A detailed cash flow report was created by leveraging fixed assets, debt, and other key balance sheet items. This automation significantly reduced the need for manual cash flow adjustments, streamlining the reporting process.
• Extensive Custom Dashboards: By enabling importing of budgetary data into OneStream, MindStream was able to create detailed custom dashboards for project level data as well as leveraging bi viewer for quick analyses.
• Data Export: A data export feature was developed within OneStream to facilitate direct uploads to Urban Grid's parent application, ensuring consistent and timely reporting to Brookfield Renewables.
• SOX Compliance: The implementation strictly adhered to internal audit requirements, with extensive testing and documentation to meet SOX compliance standards.

Results

The OneStream implementation led to significant improvements in Urban Grid's financial management processes:

• Enhanced Reporting Capabilities: Urban Grid can now generate final product reports for quarter-end close, with user training enabling effective use of the system. The company also completed planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes within OneStream, reducing reliance on Excel and mitigating issues such as system crashes.
• Custom Dashboards: MindStream was able to create detailed custom dashboards for project level data as well as leveraging bi viewer for quick analyses. Also included custom extensible documentation for quarterly reports.

Combination of Cube View and BI Viewer

Custom extensible documentation for quarterly financial reports

Improved Cash Flow Forecasting: The implementation enabled monthly and rolling 12-month cash flow forecasts, providing Urban Grid with a clearer and more accurate view of their financial health.

Operational Reporting: The expansion of the consolidation phase allowed for the creation of FP&A operational reports within OneStream. Urban Grid now uses dashboards featuring charts, stoplight reporting, and comparative analyses, giving them immediate insights into key metrics and variances from plans.

Granular Data Analysis: With the addition of Item Codes and Project Codes, Urban Grid can now analyze their business at a more granular level, leading to better decision-making and strategic planning.

Urban Grid's partnership with MindStream Analytics for the implementation of OneStream has been a resounding success. The new system not only met the company's immediate needs for enhanced financial planning, analytics, consolidation and reporting but also provided a scalable solution for future growth. The project was completed on time, with all stakeholders expressing high levels of satisfaction with the results.