Infigen says buying gas plant to further expand in renewables

Australia’s Infigen Energy (ASX:IFN) on Thursday announced the acquisition of a 109-MW gas plant in New South Wales, saying this would allow the company to profitably grow intermittent renewable energy generation by 300 MW to 400 MW.

Infigen has bought the fast-start Smithfield Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) plant in Western Sydney for AUD 60 million (USD 41.5m/EUR 37m) in cash. A further cash payment of up to AUD 14 million could be made, subject to the expansion of the plant’s capacity to 123 MW.

This transaction is seen to significantly grow the company’s Commercial and Industrial (C&I) customer base in New South Wales and facilitate a “substantial increase in contracting into higher priced, longer tenor and more stable markets.” This, in turn, would deliver higher quality of earnings, according to Infigen.

“The ownership of firming capacity in NSW will enable us to substantially increase the renewable energy we sell to our growing customer base on a reliable and firm basis, and to increase the number of customers we serve,” said Ross Rolfe, managing director and CEO of Infigen.

(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.691/EUR 0.618)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!