GE Energy Financial Services is providing a loan to investment firm Rockland Capital, LLC to support its acquisition of the gas-fired Elgin Energy Center in Illinois.
Rockland Capital purchased the power generation facility, which sits on a 27-acre site 40 miles northwest of Chicago, as part of a larger acquisition earlier this year. GE Energy Financial Services is providing a $50 million senior secured term loan that will be used in part to finance the Elgin acquisition and pay related fees and expenses. Further details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The 484 MW Elgin peaking power plant, which sells its capacity into the PJM market, began operating in 2002 with four simple-cycle natural gas-fired turbines. Its operations and maintenance are provided by ProEnergy Services with additional energy management services by Tenaska Power Services.
GE Energy Financial Services holds equity and debt investments in power projects with a combined capacity of 30 GW, equivalent to the installed generating capacity of Norway. Recent power lead arranging transactions include the Saguaro Power Plant in Nevada and Nelson Energy Center in Illinois. The GE unit offers flexible financial structures ranging from common and preferred equity to debt and acquisition finance.
The Elgin Energy Center is part of a 1,166 MW portfolio of three Illinois power plants that Rockland Capital acquired from Ameren Corp. in January. The transaction was the first acquisition for Rockland Power Partners II, a $425 million investment fund closed in December 2013.
