Tiverton Power Sold To Canadian Utility Company

The only tenant in Tiverton’s Industrial Park was sold on Feb. 17 to a Canadian power company, with the deal expected to close in April, according to company officials.

Edmonton-based Capital Power Corporation announced the acquisition of Tiverton Power, Inc. and another facility under Brick Power Holdings LLC located in Rumford, ME.

Capital Power is spending approximately $315 million to acquire the two power plants, according to a press release.

Both natural gas-fired power plants have been serving their respective regional grids for several years and have a maximum combined capacity of 549 megawatts. According to The Providence Journal, both plants went offline and their owner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2006.

“Capital Power’s business and financial strategies are designed to deliver disciplined growth as we aim to reach 10,000 megawatts of assets by 2020 on a consistently accretive basis,” said Brian Vaasjo, Capital Power’s president and CEO, in a press release. “The acquisition of Tiverton and Rumford demonstrates our commitment to the strategy. They provide Capital Power with the foundation for a networked hub of assets in the U.S. Northeast, one of our target markets.”

Vaasjo added that they expect power prices to recover in the Northeast and "earnings from the Tiverton and Rumford plants will increase as power prices increase."

Tiverton Town Administrator Jim Goncalo said he knew the power plant was up for sale, but was unaware of Capital Power’s recent announcement.

“We were trying to negotiate a new deal,” he said on Thursday.

Goncalo added that the town sold Tiverton Power their industrial park property years ago. He noted that when in operation, Tiverton Power was bringing in approximately $700,000 in annual town revenue.

In unrelated industrial park happenings, the Planning Board will soon be looking to hire an engineer to analyze how to correctly subdivide the industrial park's 177 acres. The impetus is for either a proposed wind farm to cater to nine East Bay communities, or to attract future businesses, according to Town Planner Chris Spencer.