Financing Announced for Shell WindEnergy, Dominion Sponsored Wind Farm in West Virginia

Energy Resource, Nov 30, 2007

ENERGY RESOURCE-30 November 2007-Financing Announced for Shell WindEnergy, Dominion Sponsored Wind Farm in West Virginia(C)2007 JeraOne - http://www.jeraone.com

Fortis and BBVA today announced that they have been selected to be joint bookrunners and joint lead arrangers for a $185 million senior secured financing that will support construction and operation of NedPower Mount Storm LLC, a new 164 MW wind farm in Grant County, West Virginia.

Shell WindEnergy, a division of Royal Dutch Shell, and Dominion are sponsoring the project and will own it on a 50/50 basis. Fortis will also act as administrative agent and security agent for the project.

Fortis and BBVA will structure, underwrite and syndicate the construction facility, which will be converted into a 15-year senior secured term loan at the onset of commercial operations scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2008. The facilities launched in November 2007.

"Fortis's involvement as joint bookrunner and lead arranger for the NedPower Mount Storm project is just another example of Fortis's commitment to financings in the wind energy sector," said Eric Chilton, Managing Director and U.S. Head of Corporate and Investment Banking. "Since 1996, Fortis has provided a wide spectrum of financial solutions ranging from debt to tax equity on over 20 domestic alternative energy projects."

All electricity generated by the new wind farm will be sold into the PJM market, the world's largest competitive wholesale electricity market, in which Dominion brings local generation and transmission experience. The project has entered into two identical power swaps, fixing the electricity price for five years. It will use 2.0MW wind turbines by Gamesa, one of the world's leading wind turbine manufacturers with more than 10,000 MW installed.

Shell WindEnergy owns and operates over 1,100 MW of gross wind capacity, spread among 12 projects in Europe and the U.S., while Dominion serves retail energy customers in 11 states with an asset portfolio of 26,500 MW of power generation and 6,000 miles of electric transmission.

BBVA is one of the top four banks in the Eurozone in terms of market capitalization and is one of the main international banking groups in Latin America with leading subsidiaries in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. The bank is also present in the world's main financial centers through its New York, London, Frankfurt and Tokyo branches and representative offices.

Fortis Merchant and Private Banking is a division of Fortis, a global financial services firm.

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