A newly named Canadian company retains 202 MW of operating hydroelectric capacity
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board has sold the US operations of its FirstLight clean energy platform to Hull Street Energy and will keep the Canadian assets under a new company, Caelo Energy, retaining 202 MW of operating hydroelectric capacity in Quebec and Ontario.
The US portfolio sold comprises approximately 1.4 GW of installed capacity across hydroelectric generation, energy storage, and other clean energy assets in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
The sale includes the FirstLight brand.
Hull Street Energy is a private equity firm specializing in power infrastructure and energy transition investments.
Caelo Energy, wholly owned by PSP Investments, was formed from the combination of the legacy Hydromega and H2O Power businesses.
It operates 18 hydroelectric facilities across Quebec and Ontario and is advancing a development pipeline of nearly 1 GW of wind, solar, hydro, and battery storage projects.
The company has offices in Montreal and Oshawa, and FirstLight’s Canada-based employees will remain with it.
Andrew Alley, managing director and global head of infrastructure investments at PSP Investments, said the transaction concludes a decade of building FirstLight.
The Canadian platform retains “long-term, inflation-linked operating cash flows,” a development pipeline and an existing team, he said.
Patrick Gut has been appointed chief executive officer of Caelo Energy.
PSP Investments said he brings nearly a decade at the pension investment manager, where his primary focus was investment and asset management in the power sector in the Americas and Europe, and that he served as interim president of H2O Power and as a board member of both H2O Power and FirstLight.
Alley said Patrick has worked on the portfolio for years as an investor and board member, and that PSP backs him to lead Caelo Energy.
The Canadian pipeline includes the 57.2 MW Fort Frances solar project in Ontario, developed in partnership with the Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation.
PSP Investments said the project was awarded a 20-year power purchase agreement through Ontario’s Long-Term 2 procurement process.
Gut said in the announcement that he will lead Caelo Energy alongside a team he has worked with for years.
The company’s hydroelectric facilities have operated in their communities for generations, he said, and will form the base for what comes next.
