IEnova announces closing of financing for Energía Sierra Juarez Wind Project

On 12 June 2014, Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.B. de C.V. (IEnova) announced the execution and funding of a US$270 million project financing for the construction of the first phase of the Energía Sierra Juárez wind project.

The project financing was provided by a syndicate of banks with Mizuho Bank, Ltd. as coordinating lead arranger, the North American Development Bank as technical and modeling bank, and Nacional Financiera, S.N.C. Institución de Banca de Desarrollo, Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation as lenders.

The lenders under the facility are providing the project with long-term debt maturing 18 years following commercial operation of the project. In addition, the project has entered into a value added tax credit facility for up to MX$455 million with Banco Santander (Mexico), S.A.

Carlos Ruiz Sacristán, chairman and chief executive officer of IEnova, stated:

This financing agreement is another key milestone in the development of the Energía Sierra Juarez project and an important component of our business model and growth strategy

Energía Sierra Juárez has a 20-year power purchase agreement with the San Diego Gas & Electric.

Energía Sierra Juarez is a wind power generation project with a total capacity of 1,200 MW that will be built in various phases in Baja California´s Sierra de Juarez mountain range. With a USD$300 million investment, Phase I of the project is currently under construction, and will have a capacity of 155 MW, through 47 turbines of 3.3 MW each. The phase I is expected to be operational during the first half of 2015.

The project will interconnect with the Southwest Powerlink transmission system at San Diego Gas and Electric´s (SDG&E) East County (ECO) substation east of San Diego via a new cross-border transmission line. The project could also potentially connect to the Mexican power grid.

This project is the first cross-border wind-generation project to be constructed between Mexico and the U.S., with generating assets located in Mexico and transmission infrastructure located in both countries.