Macquarie Power & Infrastructure Income Fund Announces Solid First Quarter Results

Market Wire, May, 2008

Macquarie Power & Infrastructure Income Fund (TSX: MPT.UN)(TSX: MPT.DB)("MPT" or the "Fund"), which invests in essential infrastructure assets in North America, today reported results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2008. The Fund's Management's Discussion and Analysis and unaudited financial statements are available on the Fund's website at www.macquarie.com/mpt and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

"Overall, the Fund's portfolio performed strongly during the quarter in line with expectations," said Mr. Gregory Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Fund. "The Fund benefited from increased power production and higher power rates as well as predictable results from Leisureworld, where the newly acquired long-term care homes made a positive contribution. Also during the quarter, the Fund increased distributions to unitholders to $1.05 per unit on an annualized basis, which represents a compound annual growth rate in distributions of 2.8% since inception."

Financial Performance

Revenue for the quarter was $43.7 million compared with $29.0 million in the first quarter of 2007. The increase reflected the contribution from the wind, hydro and biomass power assets that the Fund acquired as part of the successful unit exchange takeover of Clean Power Income Fund ("CPIF") on June 27, 2007 and higher power prices attributable to the continuing impact of electricity rate increases under the Cardinal facility's ("Cardinal") Power Purchase Agreement ("PPA").

Income from operations(1) for the Fund was $10.7 million for the quarter compared with $7.6 million for the same period last year, reflecting the higher revenue. The increase in revenue was partially offset by a $5.6-million increase in operating costs, which was due to the addition of the new assets to the portfolio as well as increased fuel usage and higher gas transportation costs at Cardinal. The growth in revenue was also offset by a $1.7-million increase in administrative expenses, which included additional management fees and cost reimbursement associated with the acquisition of CPIF as well as ongoing business development activities.

The Fund's distributable cash(2) was $16.5 million ($0.330 per unit) compared with $12.1 million ($0.402 per unit) in 2007. Declared distributions to unitholders for the quarter were $13.1 million ($0.262 per unit) compared with $7.7 million ($0.257 per unit) in 2007, representing a payout ratio of 80% (Q1 2007 - 64%). The higher payout ratio reflects the cash flow from the newly acquired assets, which was offset by higher distributions declared to unitholders. The increase in distributions declared was due to a greater number of units outstanding as a result of the issuance of units in connection with the acquisition of CPIF as well as an increase in distributions to unitholders of $0.02 per unit on an annualized basis. Distributions to unitholders are paid from cash flows from operations and unrestricted cash balances.

Financial Position

As at March 31, 2008, the Fund had positive working capital of $32.7 million and cash on hand of $25.6 million, including fully funded general, major maintenance and capital expenditure reserve accounts in the aggregate amount of $18.9 million. The Fund is conservatively leveraged, with a debt to capitalization ratio of 39.3%.

Operational Performance

Total power production for the quarter increased 65% to 568,838 MWh compared with 344,543 MWh last year.

Cardinal performed in line with expectations, producing 346,244 MWh of electricity (Q1 2007 - 344,543 MWh), which reflected fewer outages in 2008 compared with 2007. As a result, Cardinal achieved availability of 99.9% (Q1 2007 - 99.2%) and capacity of 98.5% (Q1 2007 - 97.9%). Subsequent to quarter end, Cardinal completed its combustion inspection in four days instead of the five days typically required.

Production at Erie Shores Wind Farm ("Erie Shores") totalled 81,933 MWh (Q1 2007 - 88,686 MWh), which was in line with the Fund's forecast. The wind speed and density in the quarter was less than the unusually strong conditions experienced in the first quarter of 2007. The facility achieved an overall availability of 97.4% (Q1 2007 - 95.9%) and a capacity factor of 38.1% (Q1 2007 - 40.8%).

The Fund's hydro power facilities delivered production of 29,937 MWh in line with the same period last year (Q1 2007 - 30,091 MWh). The two hydro facilities in Ontario experienced increased water flows. This was offset by colder than usual conditions at the Sechelt facility in British Columbia, which resulted in decreased water flows, and planned electrical and mechanical maintenance at the facility during the quarter. Overall, the hydro power facilities had a weighted average availability of 92.9% (Q1 2007 - 98.5%) for the quarter and a capacity factor of 38.6% (Q1 2007 - 39.0%).

The Whitecourt biomass plant ("Whitecourt") operated at 100% availability (Q1 2007 - 93.4%) as there were no outages during the quarter compared with two outages in the same quarter last year. The facility achieved a capacity factor of 98.7% (Q1 2007 - 92.7%). Total production at Whitecourt was 52,109 MWh (Q1 2007 - 46,760 MWh).