Centrica closes balancing and hedging contract for new wind farm in Sweden

Centrica plc subsidiary Neas Energy has signed a 10-year deal for Centrica Energy Marketing & Trading to provide balancing and power trading for a new 235 MW “Överturingen” wind farm in central Sweden.

• The project has been developed by Macquarie Group’s specialist Green Investment Group (GIG) and SCA Energy AB (SCA); GIG will own 100 per cent of the equity in the project
• The project is backed by a 29-year corporate Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Norsk Hydro

Överturingen wind farm is expected to generate 800 GWh of renewable electricity annually. Centrica subsidiary Neas Energy based in Aalborg Denmark will provide all route-to-market services for the wind farm which will include physical balancing and trading of the power production on the Nordic electricity exchange as well as the offtake of El-certificates and Guarantees of Origin.

Cassim Mangerah, Centrica’s Co-MD of Energy Marketing & Trading, said “We are very excited to be a part of this Project and expand our route-to-market business in the Nordics. We continue to see an attractive investment climate here for renewable energy infrastructure investors.

“From long standing experience in the region and a diversified portfolio, I believe that we are in a particularly favourable position in the region to provide investors and owners of energy infrastructure with the necessary physical and financial services to realise investments and offset market risks.”

A Historical Corporate Power Purchase Agreement

Part of the agreed route-to-market services will be to deliver electricity to the aluminium producer Norsk Hydro via a historical 29-year Corporate PPA agreement between the investor, Macquarie (Green Investment Group) and Norsk Hydro for a majority share of the electricity generation from Överturingen.

The project was developed by GIG and SCA Energy AB (SCA) and will comprise 56 Siemens Gamesa 4.2 MW turbines.

Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited acted as financial adviser to the sponsor on the project, raising c.€160m of senior debt from Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (Crédit Agricole CIB) and KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH (KfW). Denmark’s Export Credit Agency (EKF) is providing export credit cover. Siemens Gamesa will provide operations and maintenance services to the project through a 25-year agreement.