GE Energy Financial Services (GE EFS) and Sumitomo Corporation have secured project financing of $1 billion from a consortium of banks and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) for an independent combined cycle power project in Sharjah.

GE’s flagship 1.8 gigawatts (GW) power project Hamriyah Independent Power Company in Sharjah is expected to be the most efficient power plant in the Middle East’s utilities sector on completion. 

The team of co-developers includes Shikoku Electric Power Company and Sharjah Asset Management (SAM), the investment arm of the Government of Sharjah.

GE EFS worked with multiple private financial institutions including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Limited, Norinchukin Bank, Société Générale SA, Standard Chartered Bank and KfW-IPEX to secure financing, which will be partly insured by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI), a Japanese insurance corporation owned by the Japanese government.

JBIC will provide a second tranche under its ‘Global Facility to Promote Quality Infrastructure Investment for Environmental Preservation and Sustainable Growth, a new initiative launched by the government of Japan in summer 2018 to promote infrastructure development projects that are expected to contribute to global environmental protection.

Simultaneously, the co-developers have formed an equity consortium for the project with Shikoku Electric Power Company and SAM. The consortium’s role will be to build, own and operate the project, which will consist of three combined cycle blocks, the first of which is planned to come online in 2021. The project is due to reach full commercial operations by mid-2023 and will sell its electricity production to Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa) under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA).