Technology Assessment

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 major engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm faced extensive design changes while building a state-of-the-art nitrocellulose munitions manufacturing facility for the Department of Defense (DoD), leading to significant project delays and approximately $180 million in disputed costs.

Solution: EPS conducted a comprehensive technical review of the multi-year project's design elements, including process, mechanical, electrical, structural, civil, and safety systems, and performed a detailed cost engineering analysis. Through this extensive evaluation, EPS identified significant latent design defects and project management errors and then quantified the resulting scope changes.

Result: EPS's thorough analysis of the engineering design and project management supported effective dispute resolution, enabling the construction firm to present a strong defense in a contractual disagreement over project delays and cost escalation.

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: 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 renewable municipal waste-to-energy technology and equipment provider faced allegations of design defects, including faulty equipment, poor operational controls, unwanted byproducts, and inconsistent environmental emissions.

Solution: EPS conducted a detailed engineering analysis of the technology and equipment to determine and confirm its superior performance while identifying severe issues with the owner’s equipment, processing out-of-specification waste materials, poor water treatment, and unreliable environmental controls.

Result: EPS determined the root causes of the owner’s operational issues, enabling effective operational changes and eliminating alleged rectification works and damages, thereby saving substantial costs for the technology provider and facility owner.

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 an 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: A major oil refinery experienced a catastrophic explosion in Superior, Wisconsin, resulting in extensive property damage, injuries to over 70 workers, and the evacuation of 27,000 residents due to a release of hazardous chemicals into the community.

Solution: EPS conducted an insightful forensic investigation accurately, determining the root causes of the equipment failures, operational procedures, safety procedure failures, generation of blast waves, and the release of hazardous chemicals.

Result: EPS's investigation and testimony provided prevailing testimony for four lawsuits, including a class action for the community and three workplace injury lawsuits for contract workers.

Challenge: A renewable energy biomass cogeneration plant experienced operational deficiencies, including multiple fires, leading to disputes over the provided technology’s design and performance.

Solution: EPS conducted a forensic investigation, assessed the materials handling and quality, and evaluated the technology’s energy-generating performance.

Result: EPS’s forensic analysis established the absence of design deficiencies, demonstrated the contractual compliance of the technology, and identified the owner’s operational inefficiencies, thereby dismissing the litigation.