NextEra Energy (NEE 0.45%) announced today that it has officially completed the sale of 351 MW of hydro generating assets to Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners, a Canadian pure-play renewable power platform. The assets include 19 hydroelectric facilities, and eight upstream storage reservoirs located in Maine and New Hampshire.
NextEra and Brookfield first announced the agreement in late December, with an expected completion by the end of Q1 2013. At the time, President and CEO Armando Pimentel stated that "While this is an attractive portfolio in many respects, this transaction enables us to further optimize our power generation portfolio and concentrate our resources on areas with greater growth potential for our business."
The sale price was based on a $760 million enterprise value, and included $700 million in existing non-recourse project debt. According to NextEra's most recent annual report, hydroelectric power accounted for 2% of its total 2012 generation capacity. With the completion of this sale, the utility has no remaining investments in hydropower assets.
