Hunton Andrews Kurth Advises ADB and KBANK on First Wind Power and Integrated Battery Storage Project in Thailand

Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Bangkok office assisted Asian Development Bank (ADB) in connection with the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and KASIKORNBANK Public Company Limited (KBANK), a leading Thai commercial bank, as lenders’ counsel on an approximately USD 20 million project with Lomligor Company Limited. This project will finance Lomligor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BCPG Public Company Limited (BCPG), in the development and completion of the supply and installation works of the Lomligor 10 MW wind power facility with an integrated 1.4 MWh battery energy storage system in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Thailand.

The Lomligor Project is the first wind farm private sector project in Thailand to integrate utility-scale wind power generation with battery energy storage and will have an important impact in demonstrating the importance of battery energy storage in providing higher levels of renewable energy to the grid and helping ensure the stability and overall reliability of wind and solar power facilities to Thailand and the surrounding region.

Hunton Andrews Kurth’s lawyers assisted ADB, CTF and KBANK in all aspects of the development and financing through the completion of construction, reimbursement of prior construction costs paid and early operations.  The main finance documents were signed in May 2020 and the project completed in July 2020.

Despite hurdles and complexities arising in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, the transaction parties and advisors diligently and efficiently worked together to consummate a successful closing. The seamless project finance team effort was led by Bangkok-based energy and infrastructure partners, Edward B. Koehler and Chumbhot Plangtrakul with assistance from associates Thaphanut Vimolkej, Chloe Kwon, Randy Oh and Hyun Jin Ha along with the support from the energy team’s legal assistants Chayakorn Boonsri and Nitipat Sangpetch.  Colleagues in the London office, led by partner Ferdinand Calice and counsel Robert Askew advised on English law matters and legal opinion.