Panda Power Funds Finances Third 758-MW Texas Power Plant in Eight Months

Panda Power Funds has completed financing on a 758 megawatt expansion of its natural gas-fueled, combined-cycle power plant currently under construction in Temple, Texas.

When completed, the Temple I and II generating stations will have a combined capacity of 1,516 megawatts.

The Temple II transaction represents the third financing of a power plant by Panda Power Funds in eight months.

Panda Power Funds is supplying equity for the Temple II project along with several other institutional co-investors. Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse arranged the senior debt financing for the plant. Ares Capital was the documentation agent.

"With more than 2,250 megawatts of capacity under construction in Texas, we have given our investors a first-mover advantage in one of the fastest growing electricity markets in the nation," said Todd W. Carter, president and senior partner of Panda Power Funds.

The Temple II facility is scheduled to enter commercial operation by the summer of 2015.

The Panda Temple II project has been strategically sited along the I-35 corridor, approximately midway between San Antonio and Dallas/Fort Worth, 60 miles North of Austin.

Both Temple plants will employ quick-start turbines, which can deliver 50% power output within 10 minutes of startup and 100% power output within 30 minutes, making the plants ideally suited for a state which has more (intermittent) wind energy than any other state in the country.