Oglethorpe Power Closes Purchase of Hartwell Electric Generating Plant

/PRNewswire/ -- Oglethorpe Power Corporation has closed on its purchase of the Hartwell electric generating plant from International Power and its partner. The purchase price for the northeast Georgia facility was $148.5 million, which includes approximately $53.5 million of existing project level debt that Oglethorpe Power paid off at closing.

Oglethorpe Power previously purchased the entire output of the approximately 300-megawatt oil and gas-fired plant under a contract set to expire in 2019. A right-of-first refusal clause in that contract gave the corporation first purchase rights to the facility if it was sold. In April of 2009, International Power announced that it, together with its partner, had reached agreement to sell the Hartwell plant to Southern Power Company, subject to a decision by Oglethorpe Power on whether to purchase the plant itself. In July 2009, Oglethorpe Power notified the plant's owner that it would purchase the facility.

"Purchasing and operating the Hartwell facility as part of our own generating portfolio will help ensure that the plant continues to provide needed peaking power to Georgia's EMCs and the citizens of our state," said Elizabeth B. Higgins, Chief Financial Officer of Oglethorpe Power.

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