St. Aubin Power Project

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The St Aubin Power Project is a 34 MW power plant fueled by bagasse (a sugarcane byproduct) and coal built by the Compagnie Thermique du Sud Limitée (CTDS), along with a 66kV transmission line to connect the plant to the electricity grid. The plant sells electricity to the Central Electricity Board (the state-owned and operated energy provider for Mauritius) under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement signed in May 2003, resulting from a competitive tender process. CTDS was jointly owned by the Compagnie Energie Sud Limitee (Mauritius, 60%), Séchilienne-SIDEC (France, 25%) and the publicly listed Sugar Investment Trust (15%). Compagnie Energie Sud Limitee was itself a joint venture bewteen Mon Tresor Mon Desert Limited (30.5%), The Savannah Sugar Estates Co. Ltd. (24%), Societe Union St Aubin (24%) and Compagnie de Beau Vallon Ltee (21.5%). The project reached financial closure in July 2004, and was financed through from an 80%/20% mixture of debt/equity. Debt was issued locally and was arranged through the Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited and Barclays Bank Plc. Construction was to be completed in October 2005. The St Aubin project was one of eleven privately owned bagasse-fueled generation plants in operation in 2005 (seven of which operate only during harvesting season), which collectively provide 40% of Mauritius’ electricity supply. http://www.freehills.com.au/publications/publications_1399.asp

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