Here at Halcyon we're attuned to how both the volume and frequency of new energy information publishing demand an alerts and notifications system. After Halcyon’s platform ingests documents from federal, state, and regional entities, we can send alerts about new filings from specific entities (like the California Public Utilities Commission or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) and on new specific types of documents (such as proposed regulatory decisions, or the signing of a power plant interconnection service agreement). It is a step towards boiling down what can be thousands of documents a day, into a curated, controlled information feed   received directly in one’s inbox.

Earlier this week, I received a document of the type I like to monitor: a “Disposition of Facilities” filing from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This filing indicates a change of ownership of an existing power asset, or of one under development. Within are details of an asset, its owners, the descriptions of the transaction to take place, and its projected timing. There are also many pages of dense energy-legalese regarding the impact that such a transaction would have on competitive power markets, and the parties’ request for certain details to remain confidential, and footnoting of precedent examples of such transactions. It’s a lot to read, but useful machine-readable information lies within.

This filing concerns Envoy Solar, a 50 megawatt solar project under development in Audrain County Maryland, owned by St. Louis-headquartered Birch Creek Development, with interconnection to Ameren Missouri’s distribution system. The project is “expected to generate test power in November 2024 and reach commercial operation in January 2025,” according to its filing. 

That change of status is a bit complex. Birch Creek’s project-specific legal entity, Envoy Solar LLC, will lease the project to another Birch Creek subsidiary, which will operate and control the project. The original company, however, will still retain title to the project and will be the only entity that sells power and services to the market.

So why the change of status, and the injection of a leasing entity into the mix? It is being done so that a tax equity investor – which will financially benefit from the tax credits that the project generates – can have passive membership interests in the leasing subsidiary of Birch Creek. The language behind it is all but impenetrable, but the implication is important. The Envoy Solar Project will now have a tax equity investor.

And, we know who that tax equity investor is: an entity called “MPC FED Envoy PCFd, LLC.”

It is fair to say that this particular entity name does not immediately evoke a more meaningful company name. MPC FED Envoy PCFd, LLC is purpose-built for making a tax equity investment in Envoy Solar (it’s in the name, after all!) but beyond that, there is little to indicate who might own this tax equity investment instrument. 

Little – but not nothing. I had to jump outside of Halcyon capabilities (for the time being at least) to search for the tax equity investment entity’s owner. Entity names such as this tend to be highly patterned, and so searching for part of the name above – prior to “Envoy” and including the term “tax equity” which we know the entity is involved in – brought me to Monarch Private Capital, an established tax equity investor headquartered in Georgia.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Corporations Division website allows one to look up entities registered in the state. I searched for MPC Fed Envoy PCFd, LLC and there it is, formed on June 6 of this year. Its registered address is the same as Monarch Private Capital’s Atlanta Headquarters, right down to the suite number. So, the Envoy Solar Project being built in Missouri, owned by Birch Creek Development, has lined up Monarch Private Capital as its private equity investor. 

In its filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Birch Creek Development’s lawyers requested an authorization of the lease transaction no later than September 10, 2024, or sixty days from the date the request was filed. At that point, the tax equity investment might be made public, if the parties involved so desire. 

But (and this is the whole point) if you get Halcyon’s alerts, you see it first.

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