PPA Helper

Case study · Infrastructure

Learn to originate, negotiate, and settle a US power purchase agreement

What: An interactive course and settlement simulator for US power purchase agreements.
Stack: Static HTML/CSS/vanilla JS; the settlement math runs in-browser and in Node tests.
Status: LIVE
Dates: Published June 2026 · Updated July 2026
Links: Live site · Source code

Background

How do US power purchase agreements actually work — and how do you learn to originate, negotiate, and settle one without sitting on a finance desk?

PPA Helper teaches the mechanics by making you run them: change the market, watch who pays whom each period, and read real clauses with a definition one tap away. PPAs finance much of the new power on the grid and let big buyers — increasingly data centers — lock in a price for years. But a virtual PPA is really a contract-for-differences settling against a floating wholesale price, and most explanations are either pure jargon or behind a consulting invoice.

A Look Inside

Each view shown on mobile and desktop — tap any image to open the live site.

The Learn tab opens the tool (mobile) — The Learn tab opens the tool — four steps from 'I know nothing about power' to how a virtual PPA works, with an experience-level filter (Newcomer / Practitioner / All) that reshapes the depth.

The Learn tab opens the tool (desktop) — The Learn tab opens the tool — four steps from 'I know nothing about power' to how a virtual PPA works, with an experience-level filter (Newcomer / Practitioner / All) that reshapes the depth.

The Draft PPA tab generates a full VPPA practice template in seconds (mobile) — The Draft PPA tab generates a full VPPA practice template in seconds — fill in parties, project details, and commercial terms, and every negotiable position is flagged so you know exactly what to fill in.

The Draft PPA tab generates a full VPPA practice template in seconds (desktop) — The Draft PPA tab generates a full VPPA practice template in seconds — fill in parties, project details, and commercial terms, and every negotiable position is flagged so you know exactly what to fill in.

How It Works

A static site — plain HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS, no build step, no backend — deployed to GitHub Pages as-is:

Settlement simulator: pick a side and a market scenario, then watch who settles up each period; a basis-risk slider shows a congestion event eroding the developer's realized price.
Draft PPA generator: fill in parties, project, and commercial terms to get a full VPPA practice template, every negotiable position marked [IN BRACKETS].
One source of truth: a 48-term glossary powers the inline tooltips, so a definition is always one tap away — never a second copy to drift.
Eight tabs: Learn, Drafting, Draft PPA, Settlement simulator, Data centers, Perspectives, Glossary, and Coverage & sources — all reshaped by a Newcomer / Practitioner / All filter.
Scored coverage: a sources view rates what's backed by a primary source, after research passes across FERC, IRS, EPA, NREL, and Berkeley Lab.
Checked, not vibed: the settlement core runs identically in the browser and in dependency-free Node tests.

Caveat, stated in the tool too: the simulator and term sheets illustrate contract mechanics — not market data, legal advice, or financial advice.

[View the Live Tool] | [View the Code]

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