Minor memos
Utility-scale assets were selling for an average of roughly $2.8 million a megawatt for solar and $2 million for wind at the end of 2014, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance . . . . Talen Energy Corp. agreed in October to sell a combined-cycle gas-fired power plant to TransCanada and two hydroelectric facilities to Brookfield. The gas plant is being sold for eight times EBITDA, while the two hydroelectric facilities are being sold for 18 times EBITDA, UBS estimates. Both transactions are expected to close in the first quarter of 2016 . . . . Rates on term loan B debt continue to trend up. A $460 B loan to finance the Panda Hummel project, a 1,000-megawatt combined-cycle gas-fired power plant in Pennsylvania, closed in late October at 600 basis points over LIBOR with original issue discount of 96 and a 1% LIBOR floor, according to Power Finance & Risk. The deal closed on slightly worse terms than the 550 to 575 basis points on which it went to market. A senior bank debt tranche of $250 million closed as a 6.5-year loan priced at 375 basis points over LIBOR. The senior debt is rated BB- by Standard & Poor’s . . . . A solar power plant owned by a utility and used to supply electricity to a federal agency, probably a military base, at negotiated rates under a long-term power purchase agreement is not “public utility property,” the IRS said. Utilities cannot claim investment tax credits or accelerated depreciation on assets considered “public utility property” if their regulators require the benefits to be passed through immediately to ratepayers. The IRS analysis of the case is in Private Letter Ruling 201544018. The ruling was released in late October . . . . The IRS told another utility in a ruling released in September that it could claim five-year MACRS depreciation on a coal-fired power plant that the utility converted to run on biomass. Such depreciation can only be claimed on a power plant that is considered owned no more than 50% by a regulated utility within the meaning of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act as in effect in September 1986. The utility said it owns 100% for tax purposes, but it produced an opinion from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it owns no more than 50% within the meaning of the utility statute. The ruling is Private Letter Ruling 201539024.