Toyota Tsusho to invest in St. Joseph Natural Gas-fired Power Plant Project

Toyota Tsusho Corporation has announced that it will participate in construction and operation of the St. Joseph natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plant (St. Joseph Energy Center) in the State of Indiana, U.S.A.

Toyota Tsusho will contribute 20% of the equity capital for the project and the funds managed by Ares EIF Group, a subsidiary of Ares Management, L.P. who is a global alternative asset manager, will contribute 80% of the equity capital. St. Joseph Energy Center has been developed by Development Partners Group, LLC.

The nameplate capacity of St. Joseph Energy Center will be 700MW. The plant is expected to begin construction in November 2015 and commercial operations in the spring of 2018. After the commercial operation date, the plant's output will be supplied to the PJM, the Independent system operator, the largest wholesale electricity market in North America which serves all or parts of the 13 states in the north-eastern United States as well as in Washington D.C.

The 700MW project will have two Siemens SGT6-5000F gas turbines and one steam turbine.

St. Joseph Energy Center is Toyota Tsusho's sixth power project in North America (gross generating capacity is 4,155 MW) and fourth power project to supply its output to wholesale markets in the U.S. (gross generating capacity in the U.S. is 2,840 MW).