Perth will get a 45MW eco-friendly power station after Perpetual's Diversified Infrastructure Fund committed to the major equity stake in the proposed $100 million Neerabup plant.
Perth will get a 45MW eco-friendly power station after Perpetual's Diversified Infrastructure Fund committed to the major equity stake in the proposed $100 million Neerabup plant.
The fund will share ownership with Perth BioEnergy Holdings Pty Ltd, the investment vehicle put together by the foudners of the project Cliff Jones and Gavan Troy.
Mr Jones has been a driving force for the project through his sustainable power and water specialist Beacons Consulting International Pty Ltd.
The move is the second major investment in Western Australia by the Perpetual fund. It also has the major equity stake in a $30 million waste treatment plant project with Organic Resource Technologies Ltd, a subsidiary of ORT Ltd.
The Neerabup plant will be fuelled by harvest residues from plantation logging, taking all such materal from WA's Forest Products Commission properties within 100km of Perth for the next 25 years.
Perpetual head of infrastructure Brett Lazarides said the fact that the fund had made two such investments in WA was coincidental and that though both had a green tinge from the fund's point of view they represented separate sectors - waste and energy.
Mr Lazarides said the diversified infrastructure fund took a long term view.
"We invest on behalf of superannuation funds and they have a 30-year investment horizon for the asset class, as we do," he said.
"We invest over the full life of the project."
Below is the full release:
MEDIA RELEASE
1 December 2005
Perth bio-energy project achieves key milestone
Perth BioEnergy Holdings Pty Ltd (PBH) and Perpetual's Diversified Infrastructure Fund (PDIF) today announced the signing of an agreement to develop the Perth BioEnergy Project, a 45 megawatt power station north of Perth on the Neerabup Industrial Estate.
Once operational, the power station will have sufficient capacity to supply approximately 45,000 homes or a mix of commercial and industrial enterprises, using primarily plantation harvest residues from plantation logging.
Through an agreement with the Western Australia's Forest Products Commission, the project has guaranteed access to all plantation residues within a 100 kilometre radius of Perth's CBD for a period of 25 years.
As part of the agreement, PBH and PDIF will establish a special purpose project company, Perth Renewable Power Company (PRPC), which will manage the final development phase of the project and ultimately own, construct and operate the power station.
In announcing the agreement, Project Director, Mr Clifford Jones of Beacons Consulting International (Beacons), said the facility would deliver additional base load power to customers across the Perth grid and significant environmental benefits to the inhabitants of Perth.
"By eliminating residues which would have otherwise been burned and created significant pollution for nearby residents, the project contributes towards meeting the targets set by the Australian Government and the WA Government for Greenhouse gas reductions while delivering competitively priced power," he said.
Mr Brett Lazarides, Perpetual's Head of Infrastructure said Perpetual considered this asset sector a good fit within its diversified infrastructure portfolio, based on the Project's long-term, contracted off-take structure.
"The project is expected to provide highly predictable earnings, which will underpin a strong distribution yield and attractive growth prospects for investors post construction," he said.
"Significantly, the project will deliver base load electricity, the reliability of which has advantages over most other renewable power projects."
PDIF's commitment to fund construction of the Project on financial close is subject to final approval by Perpetual's Infrastructure Investment Committee at the conclusion of this development phase and conditional on meeting certain hurdles documented in the agreement.
The directors of PRPC and Beacons would like to recognise the Western Australia Government, the opposition parties and the various public sector agencies which have acknowledged the significant benefits this Project delivers in encouraging and supporting its development to date.
The engineering and construction phase is expected to begin by mid 2006 and the power station is expected to be fully operational by mid 2008.
