Enbridge to utilize Tri Global to help develop its pipeline of original solar projects to power operations
Enbridge intends to leverage its recent acquisition of Tri Global Energy (TGE) to not only support TGE’s pipeline of projects, but to leverage the company’s development expertise to build up its ongoing solar portfolio, said Enbridge’s Communications and Strategic Planning officer Michael Barnes in an interview with NPM.
This portfolio is part of Enbridge’s self-power strategy which includes the development and ownership of projects for power load and transmission interconnection on owned land. A more specific branch of this is the firm’s “self-solar” strategy, which involves building solar projects at existing natural gas and liquids pump stations to power operations. The publicly traded North American energy infrastructure business has five distinct business segments: liquid pipelines, gas transmission and midstream, gas distribution and storage, renewable power generation and energy services.
As for its self-power strategy, these typically involve 5 to 15 MW sites; Enbridge already has a number of these in development, mostly focused in Michigan and Wisconsin with other early developments in Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio. Enbridge also owns three projects including the 249 MW Chapman Ranch Wind, 203 MW Magic Valley I Wind and 110 MW Keechi Wind.
This will be Enbridge’s biggest moves into renewables thus far, following up on its deployed investments into other energy transition strategies, including RNG and carbon capture over the past 12 months.
The pipeline for the Dallas-based TGE is largely focused in ERCOT with four large scale wind projects including the 300 MW Easter Wind, 300 MW Cone/Crosby III, 200 MW Blue Cloud Wind and 150 MW Water Valley Wind projects, all of which are expected to be completed in 2026. Up for COD sooner are a duo of massive solar projects in Callahan County, Texas, the 350 MW Cadillac Solar and 400 MW Cadillac Solar El Dorado projects. The El Dorado project is expected to come online next year followed by the 350 MW project in 2024.
TGE’s pipeline also includes a pair of wind projects in Illinois including the 255 MW Vermilion Grove Wind, which has a 2023 COD, and 150 MW Shannon Wind, with a 2024 COD. Near Vermilion Wind, TGE is also developing a 150 MW solar + storage hybrid project, Vermilion Solar/BESS.
On top of these “late-stage development” projects, Barnes says TGE has also identified roughly 3 GW of additional opportunities in Texas, Wyoming, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. This early-stage pipeline is significant, Barnes says, because it “adds early-stage development capabilities “to Enbridge’s “execution and operations expertise.”
Deal details
The publicly listed Enbridge struck a deal to acquire TGE for USD 270m in cash and assumed debt. The price could include up to an additional USD 50m in potential payments contingent on the successful execution of TGE’s current project portfolio.
Separately, TGE will generate development fees and accretion to distributable cash flow per share in the first year following the deal based off 3.9 GW of renewable projects TGE sold to operators.
In the past two years or so, this has included selling two ERCOT projects to an undisclosed buyer this past June and in June 2021 selling a solar and wind farm in Blackford County, Illinois to Leeward Renewable Energy.
*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.
New Project Media (NPM) is a leading data, intelligence and events company dedicated to providing origination led coverage of the renewable energy market for the development, finance, advisory & corporate community.