Independent power producer Talen Energy Corp. said Nov. 25 that it has completed the purchases of the Freedom Generating Station in Pennsylvania from Caithness Energy and the Guernsey Power Station in Ohio from both Caithness Energy and BlackRock.
“The Freedom and Guernsey plants are best-in-class natural gas assets in key locations within PJM,” said Talen President and Chief Executive Officer Mac McFarland. “They add nearly 2.9 gigawatts of modern, highly efficient baseload generation to Talen’s fleet and enhance our ability to provide reliable, low-carbon capacity to hyperscale data centers and large commercial off-takers.”
The Freedom Generating Station in Pennsylvania is a two-unit, modern, highly efficient natural gas-fired facility located in Luzerne County, Pa.
To fully fund the acquisitions, Houston-based Talen said it successfully executed several financing transactions at attractive rates, including $2.7 billion of senior unsecured notes and a $1.2 billion senior secured term loan B credit facility.
“The acquisitions are immediately and highly accretive, maintain our balance sheet discipline, and represent a great example of our ‘Talen flywheel’ strategy,” McFarland said.
The company said it also received commitments from its bank group to increase its existing revolving credit facility to $900 million and its existing letter of credit facility to $1.1 billion.
The actions further support the impact of the acquisitions on the financial operations of the business, according to Talen Chief Fossil Officer Dale Lebsack.
“Our team is prepared to successfully integrate both assets into our portfolio, and we thank Caithness Energy and the plants’ operator, Ethos Energy, for their cooperation and support over the past few months,” Lebsack said. “We expect the Freedom and Guernsey teams to continue their impressive track record of safe, compliant, and efficient operations as part of the Talen fleet.”