Centrais Eolicas Caetite Wind Park

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The company Centrais Eolicas de Caetite Participacoes S.A., a subsidiary of Rio Energy Fundo de Investimento (controlled by Denham Capital), was granted authorizations to build three wind power plants located in the state of Bahia, municipality of Caetite (75 MW in total capacity). The35-year contracts were signed with the regulatory agency ANEEL starting in February 2014. The company Centrais Eolicas de Caetite Participacoes S.A. created three special purpose companies to manage the projects: EOL Caetite A - Eolica Caetite A S.A. (30 MW) EOL Caetite B - Eolica Caetite B S.A. (30 MW) EOL Caetite C - Eolica Caetite C S.A. (15 MW) The total investment in the power plants was estimated at US$ 70.4 million (BRL 209.6 million). Construction works commenced in September 2013, and were in its final stages by June 2015. Commercial operations were expected to begin by November 2015. The government periodically runs public bidding for the sale of energy to the country´s distribution companies. The power plants EOL Caetite A and EOL Caetite B won the public bidding that took place in August 2013 by offering an average tariff of US$ 49.73/MWh (BRL 116,29/MWh). The power plant EOL Caetite C won the public bidding that took place in November 2013 by offering an average tariff of US$ 53.37/MWh (BRL 125.46/MWh). The project companies signed 20-year power purchase agreements with the several electricity distribution companies. Centrais Eolicas de Caetite committed to start supplying the market in 2015. The company was granted the right to take part in the government program called Regime Especial de Incentivos para o Desenvolvimento da Infra-Estrutura (Reidi). Companies selected to take part in this program were given tax cuts in the acquisition of capital equipment and construction material acquired both in the domestic and international markets (this incentive represented a cost reduction of about 9.25%). In addition, the company was allowed to use accelerated depreciation methods of accounting for construction expenditures. In June 2015, the state-owned bank BNDES approved a US$ 51 million (BRL 152 million) loan to the project.