Compute energy needed for 10% ROI
Company: Capital One
Role: Data Scientist
Category: Statistics & Math
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Technical Screen
A proposed plant must deliver at least a 10% annual ROI on an initial investment of $400M. Annual economics (assume all numbers are annual unless noted): land lease = $5M per month; fixed O&M = $25M per year; variable cost = $20 per MWh; selling price = $40 per MWh. The plant’s maximum annual capacity is 8.8 million MWh. Compute: (1) the minimum annual MWh that must be generated and sold to achieve the 10% ROI after all operating costs; (2) whether the target is feasible versus the 8.8M MWh capacity; (3) the break-even selling price if the plant runs at full 8.8M MWh; (4) the new required MWh if price drops 10%. Extension: if the average output is constrained to 1,000 MWh/day, quantify the shortfall versus the 10% ROI requirement and propose two levers to close the gap.
Overview: This question evaluates financial modeling and quantitative analysis skills, including ROI calculation, fixed and variable cost accounting, capacity utilization, break-even and sensitivity analysis in an energy project context for a data scientist role.
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