As part of the transactions, the New Hampshire electric utility will be divesting five fossil assets and nine hydro assets.
The fossil fuel plants along with two remote combustion turbine peaking units have been agreed to be sold to Granite Shore Power for a price of $175m. Granite Shore Power is a 50/50 joint venture between Atlas Holdings and Castleton Commodities International (CCI).
The fossil assets have a combined capacity of 1,130MW which include the 502MW coal/oil-fired Merrimack Station, 416MW Oil and/or natural gas Newington Station and 171.7MW coal/oil/biomass Schiller Station.
On the other hand, the hydroelectric facilities with a combined capacity of 68.2MW will be sold to Hull Street Energy and affiliates for $83m.
Eversource NH President Bill Quinlan said: “Our generation plants have proven valuable to New Hampshire customers for many years, especially during times of extreme cold or heat when additional sources of power have been needed to help meet demand.
“Now, we will join other utilities across New England in obtaining energy for our customers from the competitive regional wholesale energy market.”
Eversource has given the details of the deals in a filing with the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (NHPUC).
The two transactions are anticipated to be closed by the year end or early 2018, subject to NHPUC and other necessary approvals.
In 2016, NHPUC had established an auction process for the assets after Eversource decided to sell them to save at least $300m for its customers and resolve outstanding disputes.
As per the terms of the agreements, the new owners will be required to operate the power plants for a minimum of 18 months from the date of sale.
The sale of the power generation facilities is expected to impact the employees of Eversource with the fate of their job status lying with the decision taken by the new owners.
