One Year Ago

Pattern Energy was trying to sell a minority stake in its 1 GW of operational, contracted wind farms in North America to raise cash for project development.

Bankers were bullish on financing merchant facilities at Euromoney Seminars’ 8th Annual Power & Renewables Conference in New York.

LS Power was nearing a pair of club deals on its Doswell and Riverside gas-fired plants. [The sponsor had been mulling weather to proceed with a term loan B refinancing of Doswell, after a sale process cooled (PI, 10/29).]

Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners offered C$2.50 ($2.51) per share for Western Wind Energy Corp., as it looked to increase its stake in the company.

A lack of uniform standards for commercial solar installations was proving to be the main obstacle to structuring the market’s maiden securitization of solar panel revenues, according to Paul Detering, ceo of Tioga Energy.

PPL Corp. was shopping its hydro and coal-fired subsidiary PPL Montana in a sale run by UBS.

State Street affiliate Antrim took a tax equity stake in NextEra Energy Resources’ 400 MW Limon I & II wind farms in Colorado alongside JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Barclays dispatched teasers for the 400 MW Gregory gas-fired cogeneration facility near Corpus Christi, Texas, that Rockland Capital, John Hancock Life Insurance and Atlantic Power Corp., were trying to sell.

A team from Union Bank moved over to Pasadena, Calif.-based OneWest Bank to establish a power and project finance operation under Grant Ahearn, executive v.p. and head of the specialized financial services group.

Duke Energy shelved the strategic evaluation of its 7.5 GW Midwest generating fleet as it goes through a rate increase request with the Ohio Public Utilities Commission. [The company expects Ohio regulators to come to a ruling this fall, with the company making a decision about the future of the subsidiary in the first quarter (PI, 8/9).]

NextEra Energy Resources was looking for tax equity investors in its Limon I & II wind farms totaling 400 MW in Colorado.

Luminus Management, CarVal Investors and Fortress Investment Group extended the timeline for selling their 800 MW Bosque gas-fired plant in Texas to accommodate Calpine, which entered the auction late.

Panda Power Funds floated its second term loan B for its Sherman project in Texas, at LIBOR plus 800 basis points. [Panda priced its third B loan in a year for the Liberty CCGT project in Pennsylvania at L+650 bps.]

Georgia Power waived its right of first refusal for Perennial Power’s Mid-Georgia cogeneration facility, paving the way for a consortium led by ArcLight Capital Partners to buy the facility.

Edison International was set to file for bankruptcy if its efforts to restructure debt were note successful.

Industry Funds Management subsidiary Essential Power was looking to refinance a 1,721 MW portfolio of plants in PJM and ISO New England with a $665 million senior secured package.

LS Power sealed a $750 million dividend recapitalization for LSP Madison at LIBOR plus 450 basis points.

Energy Transfer Equity was looking to sell two gas distribution utility subsidiaries acquired in its $7.9 billion takeover of Southern Union Co.

Renewables developers were scouting new project financing options at the REFF-Wall Street conference in New York, in the forms of master limited partnerships, real estate investment trusts and project bonds.

Harbert Power had been looking to sell its stake in independent power producer GWF Energy and Morgan Stanley was running the sale.

Price talk emerged at LIBOR plus 475-500 basis points on a term loan B for Energy Capital Partner’s EquiPower Resource Holdings.

Rockland Capital put its merchant 1 GW Harquahala combined cycle facility in Maricopa County, Ariz., up for sale in an auction run by Goldman Sachs.

BP Wind Energy and Sempra U.S. Gas & Power was set to start talking to lenders about financing its $800 million, 419 MW Flat Ridge 2 wind project near Wichita, Kan.

A trio of investors including Fortress Investment Group, Luminus Management and CarVal Investors put the 800 MW Bosque gas-fired facility in Laguna Park, Texas, on the market.

Terra-Gen Power wrapped a $650 million deal backing phases seven and nine of its Alta Wind project in Tehachapi, Calif., as 11 lenders took pieces of the deal with pricing starting at LIBOR plus 262.5 basis points.

[The company lined up $41.4 million in loans from the Inter-American Development Bank and Canadian Climate Fund for three projects, including Calama (PI, 4/1).]

Alcoa was near receiving initial bids for its Tapoco portfolio of hydro assets totaling 351 MW in North Carolina and Tennessee in an auction run by JPMorgan.

Pattern Energy was asking lenders to submit proposals for the financing of its 265 MW Ocotillo wind project in Imperial Valley, Calif.

Exelon wrapped its $7.9 billion acquisition of Constellation Energy Group, which triggered the start of the six months it had to sell 2.648 GW of coal-fired plants in Maryland.

Edison International was evaluating various options for its unregulated power producer unit Edison Mission Energy, including a potential bankruptcy filing.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings was on the cusp of closing its $850 million, 144a bond offering financing the 586 MW Topaz solar photovoltaic project in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.

LS Power was talking to lenders for financing backing its 175 MW Centinela solar photovoltaic project in Imperial Valley, Calif.

Rockland Capital had been selected as the stalking horse bidder for energy storage flywheel developer Beacon Power, with a $30.5 million bid plus $6.6 million in funding to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Tenaska affiliate Tenaska Solar Ventures had opted to use only a bank loan to finance its $600 million Imperial Solar South project in Imperial County, Calif., and dropped its hunt for a bond tranche.

enXco was looking to take out funding backing its 102.5 MW Shiloh III wind farm in Solano County, Calif.

LS Power had tapped Banco Santander to lead a bank tranche and Prudential to lead a bond component in a financing backing its 127 MW Arlington Valley solar project in Maricopa County, Ariz.

Edison Mission Group landed a $242 million financing backing 204 MW of wind projects in the U.S. via lead WestLB.

MetLife was considering taking a tax equity stake in Wind Capital Group’s 201 MW Post Rock wind project in Ellsworth and Lincoln Counties, Kansas.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. made its solar debut with the purchase of the $2 billion, 550 MW Topaz solar project in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., from First Solar.

Brookfield Asset Management had wrapped a refinancing backing its move to maintain ownership of the Cross Sound Cable in the Long Island Sound in New York.

JPMorgan Capital Corp. made a tax equity investment in three NextEra Energy Resources wind projects in California.

AES was in talks with creditors of its AES Eastern Energy subsidiary, the owner of four coal-fired plants totaling 1.17 GW in New York.

Barclays and Citigroup released teasers for two Tenaska Capital Management merchant plants, the 800 MW Rio Nogales in Seguin, Texas, and the 830 MW High Desert in Victorville, Calif.

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure was looking to sell its stake in Sociedad Austral de Electricidad, a generation, transmission and distribution company in Chile that it co-owned with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

The European debt crisis was the big concern for project finance lenders at the North American Energy and Infrastructure Finance Forum, with many banks re-pricing, or withdrawing, their participation in the market.

NRG Solar began looking for about $300 million to finance its 66 MW Alpine solar project in Lancaster, Calif.

Edison Mission Energy was reviewing refinancing options ahead of maturities totaling $1.5 billion in 2012 and 2013.

Ray Wood, former co-head of the power and renewable energy group at Credit Suisse, started running the global renewable group as Scott DeGhetto, former managing director and co-head, left the bank.

As part of the process in the bankruptcy of AES subsidiary AES Thames, the company released teasers for the sale of its 208 MW Thames coal-fired plant in Montville, Conn. Houlihan Lokey was advising AES.

Tenaska Solar Ventures along with advisor Citigroup was beginning to sift through financing proposals from lenders for its 130 MW Imperial Solar Energy Center South project in Imperial County, Calif.

EQT Infrastructure Fund and Fortistar kicked off a $660 million refinancing of debt on their 1.56 GW Midland cogeneration facility in Midland, Mich., with Credit Suisse leading a $560 million bond component

AES Corp. was considering restructuring the debt on its coal-fired subsidiary AES Eastern Energy while looking also to sell it.

ArcLight Capital Partners put six contracted assets up for sale, which included 1.12 GW of gas-fired facilities and its equity stake in the Neptune transmission line via Citigroup and Barclays Capital.

Enova Energy Group had reached out to lenders about financing a 37.5 MW biomass project in Plainfield, Conn., that it was in the process of acquiring.

The newly established power desk at Ares Management was looking to invest several hundreds of millions of dollars across the debt spectrum in power assets.

Barclays was preparing to re-launch an effort to find investors for the $2.6 billion, 468 MW Cape Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts after the U.S. Department of Energy shelved the project’s application for a loan guarantee.

Recurrent Energy began talking to lenders about financing 60 MW of photovoltaic projects in California

HSBC affiliate HSBC Trinkaus was talking with WestLB about buying its structured finance unit.

Gradient Resources, a Reno, Nev.-based geothermal sponsor, mandated BNP Paribas, Dexia Crédit Local and Scotiabank to lead a $600 million syndicated financing backing at least 120 MW at its Patua project east of Reno.

American Renewables began hunting a roughly $400 million credit supporting its 100 MW biomass project in Gainesville, Fla.

LS Power expected final offers for minority stakes in two of its transmission projects to arrive by the end of May.

EDF Energies Nouvelles nixed a financing backing its roughly $700 million, 300 MW Lac-Alfred wind project in Quebec after failing to land its desired pricing and tenor.

David Nadelman, former co-head of loan syndicate at Royal Bank of Scotland, left the Stamford, Conn.-based bank to take a position at Royal Bank of Canada in New York.

David Nadelman, co-head of loan syndicate at RBS Securities, left the bank in Stamford, Conn.

Constellation Energy was reviewing offers from several companies, including Exelon, about a possible merger.

GDF Suez Energy North America had tapped UBS to run the sale of two combined cycle facilities—the 746 MW Hot Spring in Malvern, Ark., and 746 MW Choctaw in Ackerman, Miss.

GCL Solar Energy talked to European lenders about financing projects in Puerto Rico and in California’s Central Valley.

LS Power looked to sell minority stakes in two of its transmission project companies, Great Basin Transmission South of Nevada and Cross Texas Transmission.

Electric Infrastructure Alliance of America, a real estate trust backed by Hunt Power, John Hancock Financial Services, Marubeni Corp., OPTrust Private Markets Group and TIAA-CREF, prepared to tap lenders to lead a financing supporting Sharyland Utilities’ greenfield transmission lines in West Texas.

AES put its four coal-fired plants, totaling 1.169 GW under subsidiary Eastern Energy in upstate New York, on the market with Barclays Capital.

Competitive Power Ventures chose Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ to lead a roughly $800 million financing supporting its 800 MW Sentinel gas-fired project in Riverside County, Calif.

EDF Energies Nouvelles was close to mandating KfW-IPEX Bank, NordLB, Société Générale and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. to finance the $700 million 300 MW Lac-Alfred wind project in La Matapédia et la Mitis, Quebec.

Banco Espirito Santo was looking to unload EUR2.6 billion ($3.37 billion) of project finance and infrastructure debt.

Capital Power Income LP was on the presentation circuit, visiting interested buyers of its 1.4 GW fleet of natural gas-fired, biomass and hydro generation in the U.S. and Canada. CIBC World Markets and Greenhill & Co. were advising.

Calpine Corp. sought roughly $1.1 billion in debt supporting the construction of the Russell City combined cycle project and the retrofit of the 188 MW Los Esteros peaker, both in Northern California.

Developer Energy Answers International of Albany, N.Y., began hunting for more than $1 billion in debt for its cogeneration project in Baltimore, Md., and its waste-to-energy project in Puerto Rico.

NextEra Energy Resources began plotting its push into the solar photovoltaic sector as it snatched up a pair of 20 MW PV plants in Ontario from First Solar.

A Hunt Consolidated subsidiary launched the first real estate investment trust to invest in transmission and gas pipeline assets with four other investors.

Capital Power Income LP had put its 1.4 GW portfolio of assets in the U.S. and Canada on the market; Greenhill & Co. advised on the U.S. fleet while CIBC World Markets ran the Canada auction.

Tenaska sought to raise debt to support its first two solar projects, both in Southern California, by the end of this year.

First Wind was maintaining its sites on going public, despite shelving its initial public offering after investor appetite fell short of expectations.

Royal Bank of Scotland and Société Générale were preparing to launch a $500-700 million financing backing PowerBridge affiliate Hudson Transmission Partners’ 660 MW line between Ridgefield, N.J., and midtown Manhattan.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland and WestLB prepped the launch of a $1.2 billion debt package backing Caithness Energy and GE Energy Financial Services’ 845 MW Shepherds Flat wind project.

NextEra Energy Resources reached out to lenders about a more than $1 billion financing supporting its 250 MW Genesis concentrating solar project in Blythe, Calif.

Edison Mission Energy had retained Marathon Capital to find an investor for its 1.062 GW operating wind fleet as a way to fund its development pipeline.

LS Power and NV Energy received a loan from the Federal Financing Bank under the U.S. Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program for the $556 million OneNevada Transmission line.

Ram Power considered a private placement as a potential financing structure backing its $250 million, 49.9 MW Orita geothermal project in Imperial Valley, Calif.

National Grid was working with UBS to sell Granite State Electric Co. and National Grid NH, its power utility and natural gas distributor in New Hampshire.

Noble Environmental Power was working with MSD Capital, the family wealth investment vehicle of Michael Dell of Dell computers, to restructure a $227 million turbine loan, and with lenders to pay down a $480 million non-recourse loan that it defaulted on.