Data Analysis: Merchant's staying power in the US


US electricity demand growth has been limited since the 2008 financial collapse, and few utilities have been willing to sign new power purchase agreements (PPAs) with independent power projects.

Electricity demand fell in four of the five years between 2008 and 2012, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). New gas-fired development has been limited, though some market analysts still anticipate significant build-out as soon as 2020.

In the last 49 months, non-recourse financings have closed for 21 US greenfield, repowering and expansion gas-fired projects, with a total of 13GW in new capacity, according to IJGlobal data. These additions are concentrated in the few areas with at least some need for new capacity, including the north-east, mid-Atlantic, Texas and California.

Six of the seven financings that closed in 2011 benefited from PPAs. In the three years since, only two of 14 had PPAs at financial close (see charts 1 and 2).

 

The construction loans for 2011’s five contracted projects were all priced at 225bp over Libor. Diamond Generating closed in 2012 on $150 million of commercial bank debt for the Mariposa peaker at a margin of 200bp. And in February 2015, Energy Investors Funds closed $443 million in 27-year bonds for a 4.17% coupon on its Pio Pico peaker – the only project bond among the 21 deals.

A spate of repricings in 2014 included reductions in margins on Competitive Power Ventures’ Sentinel and NRG Energy’s Walnut Creek projects to 162.5-175bp over Libor.

Merchant opportunities meet yield-hunters

Panda Power Funds has relied on financings in the high-yield term loan B market to build six plants with merchant exposure since 2012. Temple 1 – its first project – closed a two-tranched $330 million debt financing in 2012, one priced at 700bp, the other at 1,000bp. Margins on Panda deals have mostly fallen since: Moxie Liberty closed in 2013 at 650bp, and Stonewall at 550bp in 2014.

“We’re seeing traditionally more conservative investors like pension funds looking at merchant risk for higher returns,” says Art Holland, a vice-president at Pace Global in Fairfax, Virginia.

Banks suffered huge losses on greenfield merchant financings in the aftermath of Enron’s 2001 bankruptcy. But an absence of lower-risk opportunities compared to available liquidity has encouraged banks to repress those memories.

Some banks, including BNP Paribas, will finance projects with merchant exposure if they benefit from revenue floors. Hedges, including heat rate call options, can provide lenders with some revenue certainty, as do five-year capacity contracts, such as those on the January 2015 financing for Footprint Power’s Salem Harbor project.

Banks have provided short-term financing to five quasi-merchant gas-fired projects since September 2013, when Competitive Power Ventures closed on Woodbridge at 425bp. Pricing has fallen with each successive bank financing, to 325bp for Salem Harbor (see chart 2). But these bank deals had short tenors – of construction plus five years – and Panda was able to close on slightly longer-dated debt in the B loan market.

Panda recently launched a term loan B refinancing of Temple 1, and may bring another two projects to market by year-end.

Refinancings drive B loan volumes

Until Panda launched its financings, the term loan B market was best known as the place to finance plants with some revenue risk but minimal construction risk. It also hosts financings at the level of holding companies (holdcos).

A wave of seven-year financings closed between 2007 and 2008, but the 2008 collapse reduced the interest of money market funds and collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) in participating in B loans. Those investors returned to the market by 2013.

Refinancings of 2007-2008 deals made up much of the 2013 B loan volumes. In 2014, Tenaska Capital Management closed the $1.6 billion B loan refinancing of its TPF II portfolios.

There has also been some convergence between what banks and the B loan market will offer. Michael Pantelogianis, co-head of power for North America at Investec in New York, says there is a hybrid between what can be done in the bank market and what can be done through the term loan B market. “Investec and other commercial banks, as well as other players such as debt funds and institutional money, are willing to lend into unrated loans in the power space. The loans provide relative yield, while eliminating the bells and whistles that B loans require,” he says.

Go west for PPAs

All six of the power projects that have closed financings using PPAs since 2011 – including Mariposa, Pio Pico, Sentinel and Walnut Creek – are located in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) market (see chart 3). California’s memories of its disastrous attempt at deregulation has occasionally compelled the state to seek new PPAs for baseload generators.

Nine of the 13 quasi-merchant project financings that have closed since 2011 – including Moxie Liberty, Stonewall and Woodbridge – dispatch into the PJM Interconnection market, which covers the mid-Atlantic and part of the mid-west. Three Panda projects, including Temple 1, dispatch into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), while Salem Harbor is located in ISO-New England.

PJM and ISO-New England boast forward capacity markets, and ERCOT’s wholesale and retail power markets are deregulated and liquid. Utilities dominate much of the rest of the US, including parts of the mid-west, and are under little pressure to sign new PPAs.

“In the south-eastern and most of the western parts of the US, particularly, there is no step towards competition and no ISO in place,” says Patrick Augustine, an executive director at Pace Global in Fairfax, Virginia.

But the retirements of old coal-fired capacity will encourage at least some new gas-fired additions in those markets. The EIA estimates about 60GW of coal-fired capacity will be retired between 2012 and 2020 – as plant operators decide that upgrading them to meet federal carbon regulations will be too expensive.

Gas is best placed to replace that coal capacity. By 2035, natural gas is expected to surpass coal as the leading generating fuel in the US, according to the EIA. Salem Harbor, for instance, takes its name from the Massachusetts coal-fired facility that it will replace.

Snapshots

Asset Snapshot

Russell City Energy CCGT (619MW)


Value:
USD 1,050.99m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Temple II Combined-Cycle Gas-Fired Plant (755MW)


Est. Value:
USD 750.00m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Rayburn Energy Station CCGT Power Plant (758MW)


Est. Value:
USD 750.00m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

CPV St Charles Energy Center (745MW)


Value:
USD 896.64m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Sentinel Gas-Fired Power Plant (850MW)


Value:
USD 1,065.50m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

El Segundo CCGT Power Plant (550MW)


Value:
USD 688.00m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Walnut Creek Energy Park (500MW)


Value:
USD 604.00m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Pio Pico Gas-Fired Peaker Plant (310MW)


Value:
USD 489.70m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Mariposa Energy Gas-Fired Power Plant (200MW)


Est. Value:
USD 250.00m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Woodbridge Energy Center (725MW)


Value:
USD 842.00m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Los Esteros Critical Energy Center (309MW)


Value:
USD 452.83m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Newark Energy Center Gas-Fired Power Plant (705MW)


Value:
USD 750.00m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Potomac Energy Center (778MW)


Value:
USD 800.00m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Moxie Patriot Gas-Fired Power Plant (829MW)


Value:
N/A
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Salem Harbor Station CCGT Plant (674MW)


Value:
USD 976.81m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Temple I Combined-Cycle Gas-Fired Plant (768MW)


Value:
USD 540.16m
Full Details
Asset Snapshot

Oregon Clean Energy CCGT Plant (869MW)


Est. Value:
USD 850.00m
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

Russell City Energy CCGT (619MW)


Financial Close:
24/06/2011
SPV:
Russell City Energy Company LLC
Value:
$1,050.99m USD
Equity:
$205.49m
Debt:
$845.50m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
80:20
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

CPV Sentinel Gas-fired Power (800MW)


Financial Close:
25/05/2011
SPV:
CPV Sentinel
Value:
$1,065.49m USD
Equity:
$270.00m
Debt:
$795.49m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
75:25
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

El Segundo CCGT Repowering


Financial Close:
23/08/2011
SPV:
NRG West Holdings LLC
Value:
$688.00m USD
Equity:
$0.00m
Debt:
$688.00m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
100:0
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

Walnut Creek Energy Park (500MW)


Financial Close:
27/07/2011
SPV:
Walnut Creek Energy LLC
Value:
$604.00m USD
Equity:
$40.17m
Debt:
$563.83m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
93:7
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

Los Esteros Critical Energy Center Expansion (309MW)


Financial Close:
23/08/2011
SPV:
Los Esteros Critical Energy Facility LLC
Value:
$452.83m USD
Equity:
$79.82m
Debt:
$373.01m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
82:18
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

Panda Temple CCGT Financing (758MW)


Financial Close:
17/07/2012
SPV:
Panda Temple Power LLC
Value:
$540.16m USD
Equity:
$200.00m
Debt:
$340.16m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
63:37
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

Woodbridge Energy Center (700MW)


Financial Close:
20/09/2013
SPV:
CPV Shore Holdings LLC
Value:
$813.00m USD
Equity:
$252.00m
Debt:
$561.00m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
69:31
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

Panda Temple CCGT Phase II (758MW)


Financial Close:
02/04/2013
SPV:
Panda Temple Power II
Value:
$732.00m USD
Equity:
$0.00m
Debt:
$732.00m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
100:0
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

Moxie Liberty gas-fired plant financing (825MW)


Financial Close:
21/08/2013
Value:
$627.00m USD
Equity:
$0.00m
Debt:
$627.00m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
100:0
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

Salem Harbor Station CCGT Power Plant (674MW)


Financial Close:
09/01/2015
SPV:
Footprint Power Salem Harbor Development Company LP
Value:
$976.81m USD
Equity:
$246.81m
Debt:
$730.00m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
75:25
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

CPV St Charles Energy Center (725MW)


Financial Close:
08/08/2014
SPV:
CPV Maryland
Value:
$896.64m USD
Equity:
$347.00m
Debt:
$549.64m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
61:39
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

Stonewall CCGT Power Plant (778MW)


Financial Close:
17/11/2014
Value:
$800.00m USD
Equity:
$229.00m
Debt:
$571.00m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
71:29
Full Details
Transaction Snapshot

Oregon Clean Energy CCGT Power Plant (869MW)


Financial Close:
14/11/2014
SPV:
Oregon Clean Energy
Value:
$994.19m USD
Equity:
$412.09m
Debt:
$582.10m
Debt/Equity Ratio:
59:41
Full Details