The transition from rooftop solar to a multi-MW open access or captive installation is not a linear scaling exercise. A 5–15 MW ground-mounted C&I project introduces complexities in land, grid connectivity, equipment supply chains, and statutory approvals that have no equivalent in the rooftop segment. Facility owners and EPC teams who underestimate this transition consistently discover it at the worst possible time — when the construction schedule is already running.

This article covers the five execution domains where multi-MW C&I projects most commonly run into trouble, and what a structured EPC team does to manage each one.

  1. Land and statutory approvals — start immediately The timeline for land lease or purchase, land use change (where applicable), and local statutory clearances is measured in months, not weeks. The most common mistake is treating land approvals as a prerequisite before engineering begins. In reality, land approvals and early EPC activities (topographic survey, geotechnical investigation, preliminary electrical design) must run in parallel from month one.
  2. Grid connectivity — apply early, plan for delays As discussed in our grid interconnection article, DISCOM approvals in India routinely take four to eight months from first submission. For a multi-MW open access project, the submission package requires load flow studies, protection coordination, and proposed relay settings. None of these can be completed without a confirmed interconnection point. Facilities that have not secured grid connectivity clearance before EPC mobilisation will face critical path delays that construction acceleration cannot recover.
  3. Equipment supply chain — procurement is not procurement At multi-MW scale, module and inverter supply requires formal vendor qualification, purchase orders with defined delivery schedules, and quality inspection at the factory and on delivery. Lead times for Tier-1 modules from a confirmed order are typically eight to twelve weeks. EPC firms that treat procurement as a buying exercise rather than supply chain management consistently experience delivery delays and quality defects discovered during installation.
  4. Construction sequencing — the critical path is not obvious A multi-MW ground-mounted C&I project involves foundation installation, structure erection, module installation, DC and MV cabling, inverter stations, HT interconnection, and SCADA systems. The critical path almost always runs through grid interconnection approval and commissioning. A well-structured EPC team builds the schedule backwards from target commissioning, identifies interconnection as the constraint, and sequences construction so the solar field is tested before grid synchronisation is required.
  5. Commissioning — this is not a one-day event Commissioning a multi-MW plant is a structured, multi-week process: IV curve tracing, insulation resistance testing, inverter function testing, protection relay testing, and SCADA validation. Grid synchronisation requires a DISCOM witness inspection. In many states, scheduling this inspection adds two to four weeks — a delay that must be planned for in the project timeline.

Facilities that complete their first multi-MW C&I project on time are not lucky — they started interconnection approvals early, ran land and engineering workstreams in parallel, and engaged an EPC team with a structured commissioning methodology.