A team of Haynes and Boone, LLP attorneys advised, as Texas counsel, Panda Power Funds on the completion of secured financing to develop a natural gas-fired power plant in Sherman, Texas.
Dallas Partner Jan Sharry led the firm’s efforts. Other attorneys assisting were San Antonio Partner Diana Liebmann, Austin Partner Mary Mendoza, Dallas Partner Sue Murphy, New York Partner Gil Porter, Dallas Of Counsel Steve Wilson and Houston Associate Austin Elam.
The Panda Sherman Power Project is a clean natural gas-fueled, combined-cycle facility consisting of two combustion turbines and one steam turbine. Once built, the plant is expected to supply the power needs of about 750,000 homes and should infuse an estimated $1,700,000,000 into the area’s economy during the facility’s first 10 years of operation.
This transaction marks only the second time in six years that a capital-intensive, greenfield construction project has been financed with a term loan. The other financing was for Panda’s 758-MW Temple, Texas generating station which occurred in July. Panda Power Funds is supplying equity for the Sherman project along with several other institutional co-investors.
This generation will be important to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT) power region in adding much-needed new capacity as a result of rapidly declining reserve margins.
The Panda Sherman generating station will employ the latest in proven technology and will be one of the cleanest power plants in the nation. Air emissions at the facility will be controlled to among the very lowest of any power plant in Texas, a state which possesses some of the country’s most stringent air quality standards.
The generating station will be located on a 200-acre site at Sherman’s Progress Industrial Park. Construction will take about 24 months.
