Santa Monica I Wind Power Plant

active

Energias Eolicas do Ceara S.A., a subsidiary of the Belgium company Engie (Suez/Tractebel), was granted authorizations to build a wind complex in the state of Ceara. The wind farm named Complexo Eolico Santa Monica was established with the construction of four power plants with total capacity of 97.2 MW. The following special purpose companies were created to manage each plant: * Central Eolica Trairi II Ltda - EOL Estrela (29.7 MW) * Central Eolica Cacimba Ltda - EOL Cacimbas I (18.9 MW) *Usina Geradora Eolica Santa Monica SPE II Ltda - EOL Ouro Verde (29.7 MW) * Usina Geradora Eolica Santa Monica SPE S.A. - EOL Santa Monica I (18.9 MW) The 35-year contracts were signed with the regulatory agency ANEEL starting in January 2015. In August 2015, all power plants had been granted 20-year power purchase agreements with the several electricity distribution companies through public biddings. The sponsors offered an average tariff of US$ 54.4/MWh (BRL 181.5/MWh) and committed to start supplying the market in 2018. The total investment on this power plant was estimated at US$ 142.3 million (BRL 496.4 million). Financial closure was achieved in July 2016, when the state-owned bank BNDES approved a US$ 101.3 million (BRL million) loan to finance the project. The remaining cost was equity financed. 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.