The Energia del Pacifico project (“EDP” or "Project”) consists of the development, construction, and operation of a 378MW LNG-to-power plant at the Port of Acajutla in El Salvador. The Project is majority-owned by Invenergy (“Invenergy” or “Sponsor”), a leading privately held global developer and operator of sustainable energy solutions, along with its local partner and original developer, Quantum Energy. Lenders to the Project include the Overseas Private Investment Corporation ("OPIC"), the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”), Finnish Export Credit Ltd (“FEC”), and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (“IDBI”). Astris Finance served as exclusive financial advisor to Invenergy over the multi-year financial structuring process.
This Project is expected to have a high developmental impact in El Salvador through the development of the country’s first LNG-to-power generation facility. As the largest thermal power plant in El Salvador, the Project will help meet increasing electricity demand, adding 30% to the country’s available installed capacity and displacing an equivalent amount of polluting and CO2 intense heavy fuel oil based thermal generation.
The EDP Project and the attendant FSRU (leased by the Project), together, will represent approximately US$ 1 billion of investment dedicated to a country whose credit rating makes for a challenging credit environment. The Project used multi-point contracting structure managed by Invenergy with a total construction period slated to cover a period of two years from the issuance of notice to proceed.
The Project successfully raised $657 million of multi-source limited-recourse financing, consisting of three loans provided by development finance institutions (IFC, OPIC and IDBI), as well as an ECA covered loan with KfW IPEX-Bank as the original lender and facility agent, FEC as the funding provider and the Finnish Export Credit Agency Finnvera guaranteeing the ECA loan. The Lenders are pari-passu in seniority and the total debt collectively covers a period of 18 years door-to-door which is a notable tenor for Central America. The transaction closed in December 2019.