Rio General Hydroelectric Plant

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Hidroenergia del General (HdG) was a special purpose company created to develop a 40 MW hydropower plant that would generate and sell electricity to Costa Rica’s Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE ) through a 20 year power purchasing agreement. The build, own, operate (BOO) project was located in the Sarapiqui region of the Heredia province. The main shareholders of HdG were local companies Hidroelectrica Platanar (HPSA, 70%), Saret Energy Systems (10%), and US-based Oxbow Power Corporation (20%). Financial closure for the project was reached on May 10th 2004. Trinidad & Tobago-based bank RBTT Merchant Bank Limited loaned HdG $57 million in the form of a senior secured note. The senior secured note was due in 2019 and charged an interest rate of Libor plus 5%. The total cost of the hydroelectric plant was projected to be $80 million. In January 2005 GE Energy delivered and began installing two 21MW turbines and two 23.5MVA generators for HdG. The turbines were fabricated in Norway and the generators in Brazil. In January 2005 the hydro plant was 33% complete. Commercial operation was scheduled to begin in July 2006.