In the largest-ever single provision of credit by the U.S. Department of Energy, its Office of Energy Dominance Financing closed a combined $26.5 billion in loan guarantees for Alabama Power Company and Georgia Power Company, with $22.4 billion for Georgia Power and $4.1 billion for Alabama Power.
The loan guarantees will finance projects to improve electrical grids in Alabama and Georgia, including projects related to hydropower refurbishment, battery energy storage system construction, transmission reconductoring, gas generation, grid enhancements, nuclear equipment and digital modernization.
Both Alabama Power and Georgia Power are subsidiaries of Southern Company, a U.S. utility and power company and the leading gas and electric utility provider for Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
The loan guarantees were issued under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Dominance Financing Program, which guarantees loans for projects that retool, repower, repurpose or replace existing energy infrastructure; enable operating infrastructure to increase capacity or output; or support or enable the provision of known or forecastable electric supply.
S&C has previously advised the Department of Energy on other financings, including its $861.3 million loan guarantee to finance the construction of two solar photovoltaic farms in Puerto Rico following the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and María in 2017.
The S&C team representing the EDF included John Estes, Benjamin Kent, Connor Schillerstrom and Emily Pastrana.