Vinita – The Grand River Dam Authority’s $440 million bond issue, scheduled take place later this fall, now has the approval of the Oklahoma Council of Bond Oversight.
On Thursday, August 28, the five-member council, responsible for the review of all financing requests by state agencies, gave its unanimous approval to GRDA’s bond plans following a presentation by GRDA Chief Executive Officer Dan Sullivan and Chief Financial Officer Carolyn Dougherty. The meeting took place at the State Bond Advisor’s Office in Oklahoma City.
“This is good news and was an important next step toward what we expect to be a very successful bond issue,” said Sullivan. “We appreciate the confidence the council showed in GRDA by giving this approval and we look forward to moving forward.”
The Grand River Dam Authority’s Grand River Energy Center (GREC), located just east of Chouteau, Oklahoma. GRDA will use funds from an upcoming bond issue to build a new, combined cycle gas plant adjacent to the existing coal units at this site. Last week, the Oklahoma Council of Bond Oversight gave its approval to that GRDA bond issue.
In March 2013, Moody’s Investor Services affirmed its “A2” rating for GRDA and moved its outlook from “stable” to “positive” status. In April 2014, Standard and Poor’s Rating Service took similar action; reaffirming GRDA’s “A” rating and moving the outlook from stable to positive. According to Sullivan, these revisions can mean lower interest rates when bonds are issued; something that will benefit GRDA’s ratepayers. Higher ratings can also enable GRDA to save money on natural gas hedging in the future.
GRDA will use the majority of the proceeds from this bond issue to construct a new, combined-cycle gas fired generation plant at the Grand River Energy Center (formerly Coal Fired Complex) in Chouteau, Oklahoma. Other proceeds will be used to complete emissions control upgrades on Unit 2, one of the existing coal fired generators at the facility.
All three rating agencies: Moody’s, S&P and Fitch will update their GRDA ratings in mid-September prior to the bond issue. Sullivan said GRDA expects the initial pricing of the bond issue to take place in early October.
Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable; electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75 years.
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