Granite Shore Power LLC, an equal partnership between Atlas Holdings of Greenwich and Castleton Commodities International of Stamford, has agreed to pay $175 million to acquire a New Hampshire-based utility company”™s three coal-burning power plants and two turbines, pending regulatory approval.
Under the agreement, which must be approved by New Hampshire”™s Public Utilities Commission, Eversource, based in Manchester, will divest itself of coal-fired Merrimack Station, Newington Station and Schiller Station in Portsmouth and two remote combustion turbines in Groveton and Tamworth.
Eversource also plans to sell nine hydroelectric facilities for $83 million to Bethesda, Maryland-based Hull Street Energy LLC and affiliates, pending regulatory approval.
Closings are expected by late December or early 2018.
As part of the purchase agreements, the new owners must keep the plants in service for at least 18 months and must honor a comprehensive employee benefits package established by Eversource and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. In addition, Eversource will provide three years of tax stabilization payments to communities to the extent a power plant is sold for less than its assessed value.
The change in power plant ownership will mark the completion of electric deregulation in New Hampshire and a shift in how Eversource procures energy for customers in the future.
