Ferrere assists IDB Invest on UTE financing

Ferrere has advised IDB Invest on a UTE-sponsored trust fund financing

 Ferrere has assisted IDB Invest, a subsidiary of the Inter-American Development Bank, in its role as lender in the financing of a Uruguayan trust sponsored by the National Administration of Power Plants and Electric Transmissions (UTE).

The project consists of the design and construction of a 500 kV transmission line connecting the city of Tacuarembó, located in central Uruguay, with the city of Salto in the northwest of the country, with a total length of 365 kilometres. As part of the planned works, the Chamberlain substation will be built and the Salto substation will be reinforced.

The aim is to strengthen the national electricity transmission system through the use of renewable energy resources. In total, the project represents approximately 6.6% of the current total high voltage transmission network and 32% of the 500kV system in Uruguay.

The Tacuarembó – Salto project complements the Melo – Tacuarembó transmission line, also financed by IDB Invest, where Ferrere also advised the lender.

Thanks to this project, IDB Invest will launch the world’s first green transmission line certificate. A green transmission line is a structure that transports energy from renewable sources, such as wind, hydro, solar and sustainable biomass. This certificate evaluates transmission lines according to their environmental impact and their contribution to climate change mitigation.

Gonzalo Secco, partner of the firm, highlighted the importance of this transmission line, given that, together with the one linking Melo to Tacuarembó, they manage to create “a 500kV ring that crosses the entire country and provides additional capacity and reliability to the overall system, which is notably one of the greenest in the world, supplying local demand with 97% of the energy produced from renewable sources”.

Partner Sebastián Ramos said that “this financing for Uruguay’s first Green Transmission Line is an important milestone for the country, which we hope will be a multiplier factor for this type of projects. Ferrere’s ESG practice group is experiencing an increasing flow of green and sustainable projects and their financing, which contribute to the Paris Agreement”.

Ferrere’s team was composed of partners Gonzalo Secco (pictured left) and Sebastián Ramos (pictured right), senior counsel Cristina Vázquez and senior associates Agustina Pérez Lete, Enrique Slekis, Laura Oliveros, María Eugenia Gitto and Maria Victoria Costa.