ENGIE approves financing of two projects with the BNDES

ENGIE has approved a further financing agreement with the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) for the Campo Largo Wind Complex – Phase 2, located in the state of Bahia in the municipalities of Umburana and Santo Sé, and the Gralha Azul transmission project in Parana. The two agreements are worth BRL2.7 billion (US$471.3 million) and were both reached entirely on a digital basis with ICP-Brasil certification in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a pioneering initiative by the parties involved.

Under construction, the Campo Largo Project – Phase 2 amounts to 361.2 MW of installed capacity at an investment of BRL1.6 billion (US$279.3 million). The line of finance amounts to BRL1.2 billion (US$209.5 million) and the project will capture synergies with structures already on the ground, among these, the substation and transmission line installed by ENGIE to meet the power requirements of the first phases of the Campo Largo and Umburanas wind complexes with a total of 686.7 MW of installed capacity. All installation licenses for the 11 wind farms comprising the project have been issued and entry into operations is scheduled for the beginning of next year. Once the second phase of Campo Largo has been concluded, ENGIE’s installed capacity from wind power will surpass the 1 gigawatt (GW) mark in Bahia and 1.2 GW in the Northeast region as a whole.

The loan financing of around BRL 1.5 billion (US$261.82 million) was signed in March for financing the Gralha Azul project. With a total investment of BRL2 billion (US$349 million), installation began early in the second half of 2018 and now has work in progress on several fronts. There are 15 stretches of transmission lines which are to link ten substations, five new ones, and expansions to a further five.

The aim of the project is to strengthen the National Interconnected System and increase uptime availability and quality of electric energy in the Central-South region of the state of Paraná, thus benefiting economic growth. The concession period of the public utility transmission service, including licensing, construction, assembling, and the operation and maintenance of the transmission installations is 30 years as from 2018 when the concession agreement was signed.