Owner Readiness Pack
What owners and project teams provide when lenders make readiness a condition of capital release.
When your lenders ask for readiness
This pack is for owners, borrowers and project teams whose lenders have added a readiness mandate to the appointment of their Lender’s Technical Adviser and linked readiness conditions to the release of capital, using the Lender Readiness Implementation Pack or equivalent provisions.
It does not argue the case for readiness. It sets out what the project will be asked for, when, who has to produce it, and what has to be arranged in contracts and budgets so that the evidence exists when it is called for. Each document answers a document on the lender’s side.
What you will be asked for
The lender’s question is whether readiness is maturing at the pace the planned transition from construction to operations requires. The LTA assesses that in three stages, and the project’s evidence follows the same sequence.
- Before financial close, prove the path. A Readiness Maturity Path, the readiness governance arrangements, and the evidence for the LTA’s readiness baseline.
- During construction, prove the progression. Readiness reporting, evidence for each dated Readiness Milestone, and notice of any Readiness Material Change.
- From commissioning to operations, prove the condition. Systems completion and operational readiness evidence before each critical system starts up, the records of each Transfer of Operational Control, and a stabilization report.
Readiness here does not mean every item is complete. Low readiness maturity early in a project is normal. The risk is the absence of evidence that it is maturing.
What to arrange before financial close
Roles. Readiness evidence is produced by the project in accordance with the ICxA Standards: execution evidence owners for systems completion, the operational readiness role and receiving operational authority, an independent Outcome Auditor and an Outcome Director. The LTA reviews that evidence. It does not produce it and does not act as the project’s Outcome Auditor.
Plan and budget. Most of this work is needed to start the asset up in any case. What the lender’s conditions change is when it is done and whether it is evidenced. The Owner’s Readiness Guide lists what should appear in the project’s plan and budget.
Contracts. Several lender conditions are undertakings the Borrower gives on behalf of its contractors, suppliers and operator, such as access for the LTA to readiness evidence. A Borrower that accepts the conditions without passing them down has undertaken something it cannot deliver. The guide lists the provisions to include in EPC, supply, technology licence and operating contracts before they are signed.
A completed activity is not a demonstrated capability
This is the distinction on which most first submissions fall short. Training attended is an activity. Required operator competence is the readiness condition, and the LTA will ask for evidence that the competence has been demonstrated. An asserted state without supporting evidence is not treated as demonstrated, and a large handover package does not establish readiness. The templates in this pack are laid out to report the state of conditions, not the completion of activities.
The Owner Readiness Pack
Five documents give a project team what it needs to meet a lender’s readiness conditions, and they are free to download and review. Version 1.0, November 2026. The financing documents govern what a Borrower must provide, and each project defines its own stage-gates, readiness criteria and readiness conditions under the ICxA Standards.
Owner’s Readiness Guide
What the lender is asking for, the roles the project must fill, what to plan and budget, and the provisions to put into the project’s contracts.
Readiness Maturity Path Template
The Borrower’s draft of the path the lenders agree before financial close, with the governance arrangements and the reconciliation of operating outcomes.
Readiness Evidence Map
What the Borrower provides, who provides it and when, against each of the fifteen lender conditions and each readiness criterion the LTA assesses.
Readiness Reporting Templates
The readiness section of the Borrower’s periodic report, the notice of Readiness Material Change, the evidence request log, the deferred-items schedule and the corrective plan.
Worked Example
The same fictional financing as the lender pack’s example, told from the borrower’s side: what it had to produce, where it fell short and why, and what it would arrange differently.
Terms of use
Anyone may download, read and evaluate the pack internally free of charge. Commercial use requires ICxA Corporate Membership at any tier. Commercial use includes an owner, borrower or project team using the pack on a financed project to meet lender or insurer readiness requirements, an adviser or contractor using it in a paid engagement, and use in any product or service offered to others. Publicly stating that a project, plan or service is aligned with the ICxA Standards is reserved for ICxA members.
Insurer requirements
This version covers lender conditions only. ICxA and the International Association of Engineering Insurers (IMIA) are undertaking a joint research initiative through IMIA Working Group 149 on whether measurable Readiness Conditions can improve the assessment of construction-to-operations transition risk. Insurer-side content will be added to this pack as that research reports, and not ahead of it. See the Insurer Readiness Pack page.
Questions owners and project teams ask
Do we have to use this pack to meet our lenders’ conditions?
No. The financing documents govern what a Borrower must provide, and the LTA may use its own methods and formats. The pack lays out what is asked for under the Lender Readiness Implementation Pack so that what the project sends lines up with what the LTA has to report.
Is this additional work?
Most of it is work the project needs to start the asset up in any case: recruiting and qualifying operators, completing systems, writing procedures, building the maintenance system. What the lender’s conditions change is when that work is done and whether it is evidenced. The additional effort is in defining readiness criteria in advance, controlling the evidence, and answering the LTA’s requests.
Does the LTA decide whether we can start up?
No. Start-up and Transfer of Operational Control remain decisions of the Borrower and the operator. The LTA reports whether readiness conditions have been demonstrated, and the lenders decide on the release of capital. The LTA does not certify that the project is ready, and there is no score.
What if the evidence is not available when the LTA asks?
The LTA reports insufficient evidence, with the history of its requests. That is not a finding of technical failure, but the lenders will see it. Answer within the period the financing documents set, even if the answer is that the evidence does not yet exist. A readiness condition that the Readiness Maturity Path does not yet require is not yet due and is not a deficiency.
What happens if we miss a Readiness Milestone?
The LTA refers it to the lenders, who decide what to do under their existing provisions. The milestone condition can be met by a corrective plan the LTA reports as credible: one that names an owner, is resourced, and states the evidence that will show the capability exists. The reporting templates include a corrective plan.
What if the design or the operating model changes?
A change to scope, technology, contracting structure, operator, operating model, system boundaries, schedule logic or operating assumptions that may affect a material readiness criterion is a Readiness Material Change. The Borrower notifies it before it is relied on, the LTA reassesses the affected criteria, and the Readiness Maturity Path is revised by agreement with the lenders.
Our project is already under construction. Can we still use it?
Yes. The LTA establishes a baseline at the current stage and a path for the remaining stages, and the project completes the Readiness Maturity Path Template from where it stands. Some early criteria can no longer be tested, and the baseline says so.
Who should lead readiness on the project’s side?
Someone with leadership experience of taking capital projects through the transition from construction to operations. Commissioning experience alone is not enough. The lender requires the LTA’s readiness lead to hold the Commissioning Project Manager (CxPM) or Operational Readiness Strategist (ORS) ICxA credential or higher, and a project whose own lead meets the same standard will find the reviews shorter. The Outcome Auditor must be independent of the delivery team.
Do we need software, certification or an ICxA-appointed assessor?
No. The project can meet the conditions with its own people and records. A project that wants help may engage an ICxA Operating Partner. Commercial use of the pack is covered by the terms of use.
Does the pack cover what insurers ask for?
Not in this version. Insurer-side content will follow the joint research ICxA and IMIA are undertaking through IMIA Working Group 149, and will not be issued ahead of its findings.
Next steps
Get the pack
Download the guide, the path template, the evidence map, the reporting templates and the worked example.
See what your lenders see
Read the scope the lender gives its LTA and the conditions it can link to capital release.
Use it on a financed project
Commercial use, including on a project meeting lender readiness conditions, requires ICxA Corporate Membership at any tier.