Chapter 6 discussed three coverage tests that lenders apply to measure a project's capacity to pay debt service year by year. The interest coverage, fixed charge coverage, and debt- service coverage ratios have been presented in equations (6.11), (6.12), and (6.13), respectively. Table 8.4 provides the annual interest coverage and debt service coverage ratios for the Cogeneration Project. Cogeneration Company does not plan to rent any equipment, so the fixed charge coverage ratio would be identical to the interest coverage ratio. If, however, Cogeneration Company did decide to rent significant amounts of equipment or real estate, then the fixed charge coverage ratio would have to be calculated for each year.
The interest coverage ratio increases steadily as the project loan is repaid. The debt service coverage ratio decreases in those years when the principal repayment increases. Lenders are most concerned with the values of these ratios during the early years of a project's life. For Cogeneration Project, the interest coverage ratio is 2.13 in year 1 and exceeds 3.00 in year 4. The debt service coverage ratio is 1.89 in year 1 and never falls below 1.64. In view of the strength of the Cogeneration Project's contractual arrangements, coverage of the magnitudes just calculated would suggest that Cogeneration Company should be able to service its debt in a timely manner.