DALLAS — Panda Power Funds has financed the 1,124 megawatt Panda “Hummel Station” power plant — one of the largest coal-to-natural gas power conversion projects in the U.S.
The plant will be located at the site of the retired Sunbury coal-fired power plant near Shamokin Dam in Snyder County, Pennsylvania.
The 400 MW, 65-year-old plant was shuttered in 2014 in response to low natural gas prices and the onset of strict environmental regulations promulgated by the Obama Administration. The Panda Hummel generating station will be fueled with Marcellus shale gas, which is expected to provide the project with a significant operating cost advantage.
2018
The plant is expected to supply large power markets, including Philadelphia and the New York metropolitan area, when it enters commercial operations in the first quarter of 2018.
Goldman Sachs, ICBC and Investec acted as joint lead arrangers for the senior debt financing of the plant, raising Term Loan A and Term Loan B debt capital totaling $710 million. The Term Loan B debt received an initial credit rating of BB- and a “1” recovery rating by Standard & Poor’s.
Financing
The Panda Hummel transaction marks the seventh financing of a new, large-scale power facility by Panda Power Funds in three-and-a-half years, representing approximately $6 billion in total combined capital. The fund is supplying equity for the project along with large institutional co-investors including Siemens Financial Services which is investing $125 million in the Hummel Station plant.
“The natural gas revolution has arrived in the heart of coal country,” said Todd W. Carter, president and senior partner of Panda Power Funds. “I’m proud Panda is leading the way toward clean natural gas-fueled generation. We’re ready to take what we’ve learned in Pennsylvania and apply it to other coal-fired projects across the nation.”
Jobs
Panda’s Hummel generating station is expected to bring significant benefits to the region during construction and the life of the facility. Approximately 900 jobs will be created to construct the power plant over a two-and-a-half-year period. The generating station will create approximately 35 direct, long-term jobs to run the facility and an estimated 52 indirect jobs within the community to support the plant.
By serving as the anchor tenant in the 192-acre Sunbury Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone (KOEZ), Hummel Station should also support additional investment at the site of the retired coal plant. The power facility will also help support a long-term market for Pennsylvania Marcellus shale gas producers and royalty owners.
Environmental benefits
The Hummel Station generating facility will use the latest, most advanced emissions-control technology — making it one of the cleanest natural gas-fueled power plants in the nation.
While the new power station will supply 180 percent more power than the coal plant it replaces, SO2 and NOX emissions will be reduced by more than 90 percent. The Panda Hummel generating station will also help preserve Pennsylvania’s fresh water resources by using 97 percent less water for cooling purposes than the retired coal-fired Sunbury plant.
Construction
Panda Power Funds selected a construction consortium of Siemens Energy Inc. and Bechtel Power Corp. to build the Hummel facility on a turn-key basis. Siemens will provide the power island package including the natural gas turbines, steam turbine, generators, heat recovery steam generators, and instrumentation and controls systems.
The turbines for the Hummel generating station will be manufactured at Siemens’ manufacturing facility in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bechtel will be responsible for the engineering and procurement for the balance of the plant, and the installation, construction and commissioning of the facility.
The Panda Hummel Station power plant will access natural gas through the MARC 1 and Transcontinental regional gas pipelines. Hummel Station will benefit from its close proximity to the Susquehanna-Roseland Electric Reliability Transmission Project, a recently completed 146-mile, 500 kV electric transmission line that was one of seven nationwide projects fast-tracked by the Obama Administration’s Rapid Response Team for Transmission.
The generating station will be located on the west bank of the Susquehanna River in Shamokin Dam Borough on the site of, and immediately adjacent to, the retired Sunbury coal plant. The Panda Hummel power plant will use existing infrastructure at the site for the electrical interconnection, water intake and storm water runoff systems. Construction will take approximately 30 months.
Panda Power Funds has two generating stations currently under construction in Bradford and Lycoming counties. The 829 megawatt “Liberty” power plant, located in Towanda, Pennsylvania, is expected to enter commercial operations in the first quarter of 2016.
The 829 megawatt “Patriot” power plant, located near Williamsport, Pennsylvania, is expected to enter commercial operations in the second quarter of 2016. The Panda Liberty and Panda Patriot power plants were the first two power projects specifically developed to take advantage of their proximity to the Marcellus shale gas formation.
