Great River Hydro
Great River Hydro owns and operates 13 hydroelectric power generation facilities and 3 reservoirs located on the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, three states in the New England region of the United States.
The portfolio is the largest conventional hydro system in New England with 589 MW of total installed capacity and provides critical power to the region. The company earns revenues through the sale of merchant energy, capacity and ancillary services in markets operated by ISO-New England, one of the nine Independent System Operators in North America.
Great River Hydro was owned by affiliates of ArcLight Capital Partners up until February 2023 when it was acquired by a subsidiary of Hydro-Québec. ArcLight had capitalised the company in 2017 with $750 million of non-recourse fixed-rate senior secured notes, rated BBB by Kroll, and in 2019 with a $200 HoldCo loan in which Sequoia participated with a $25 million investment. This capital structure was refinanced as part of the acquisition in 2023 which repaid Sequoia and brought a close to what was a high-performing credit. The deal benefited from an attractive cash margin over a four-year tenor that withstood cash flow tightening during the Covid period, highlighting the resiliency of the fleet as well as appropriate capital structuring and credit underwriting.