FirstEnergy Announces Buyer, Price For Sale of Merchant Natural Gas and Hydro Plants

FirstEnergy Corp. announced it has entered into an agreement to sell four merchant natural gas generating plants in Pennsylvania and its merchant portion of a Virginia hydroelectric power station to Aspen Generating, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of LS Power Equity Partners III, LP.

Under the terms of the agreement, the facilities would be purchased for approximately $925 million in an all cash transaction.

The power stations included in the sale are owned directly or indirectly by FirstEnergy subsidiaries Allegheny Energy Supply Company, LLC, and Allegheny Generating Company and have a total capacity of 1,572 megawatts (MW).

The transaction includes:

• Bath County Hydro (713 MW pumped-storage hydro) in Warm Springs, Va. (which represents the FirstEnergy merchant ownership interest in the power station)

• Springdale Generating Facility Units 1-5 (638 MW natural gas) in Springdale Township, Pa.

• Chambersburg Generating Facility Units 12-13 (88 MW natural gas) in Guildford Township, Pa.

• Gans Generating Facility Units 8-9 (88 MW natural gas) in Springhill Township, Pa.

• Hunlock Creek (45 MW natural gas) in Hunlock Creek, Pa.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017 subject to various customary and other closing conditions, including, without limitation, receipt of regulatory approvals, third party consents and the satisfaction and discharge of AE Supply’s senior note indenture, under which there is approximately $305 million aggregate principal amount of indebtedness outstanding. Further, the satisfaction and discharge of AE Supply’s senior note indenture in connection with the closing is expected to require the payment of a "make-whole" premium calculated just prior to the redemption, which based on current interest rates is approximately $100 million, FirstEnergy said

It is expected that proceeds from the sale will be invested in the unregulated money pool and may be used for the repayment of debt and general corporate purposes, FirstEnergy said

Upon completion of the sale, FirstEnergy will own or control a total generating capacity of approximately 15,380 megawatts from nuclear, coal, hydro, wind and solar facilities across Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey, Virginia and Illinois.