Global Water Intelligence has awarded Poseidon Water Desalination Deal of the Year for the Carlsbad Desal Plant. What makes it special?

• The Carlsbad financing package marks the successful culmination of a decade of painstaking preparation and tremendous tenacity by Poseidon Resources. It proves beyond all doubt that with the right determination, large-scale desalination infrastructure in the US can be financed – even in California.
• After indicating an average interest rate of 5.60%, propitious market conditions allowed the debt component of the deal to be priced at 4.78% – saving ratepayers an estimated $200 million in debt service costs over the lifetime of the bonds.
• The water resourcing challenges of the arid Southwestern US require innovative financing solutions. The pioneering collaborative approach taken at Carlsbad will serve as a blueprint for the financing of other large-scale desalination projects across the southern US.

Read the full article online at globalwaterawards.com.

Is water the new oil? Population growth and agricultural demand, combined with aging infrastructure and waste, have produced water scarcity in many countries. Prices are rising, and the lack of a dependable water supply is a massive health and economic issue. So how do we fix our water quality and management problems? That’s the question Bloomberg Businessweek Chairman Norman Pearlstine put to our panel: Ahmet Bozer, President, Coca-Cola International; Jae So, Manager, World Bank Water and Sanitation Program; Carlos Riva, CEO, Poseidon Water; Thomas Powers, Commissioner of Water Management, Chicago; and Jeff Sterba, President and CEO, American Water. Their conversation has been condensed and edited. 

Project Finance magazine cites Water Authority’s role and credit were key to successMarch 8, 2013 - The Carlsbad Desalination Project was honored Thursday in New York as the “North American Water Deal of the Year” for 2012 by Project Finance, an international trade publication that annually highlights major industry accomplishments around the world.
Carlsbad Desalination Project

• Total capital cost: $1.003 billion (includes plant, pipeline, financing costs and Water Authority system modifications)
• Bond interest rate: 4.78 percent
• Developer: Poseidon Resources
• Construction contractors: Kiewit Infrastructure West and J.F. Shea Construction Inc.
• Water deliveries: Expected to begin in 2016
• Production: 48,000 to 56,000 acre-feet/year

The magazine’s March issue said the $734 million bond issue in December “could serve as a useful template” for public-private partnerships in the water industry, particularly for seawater desalination projects. 

Infrastructure Investor Magazine has given it's North American Infrastructure Deal of the Year award to Poseidon Water for the Claude "Bud" Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant. 
"The $733.56 million issue of bonds for Poseidon Resources’ Carlsbad reverse osmosis desalination project took ten years to come to market. But it could serve as a useful template for applying PPP structures to water assets, particularly in ocean water desalination.The project, located in Carlsbad, California, had a long gestation because of the highly public nature of the project and what it will produce. Poseidon ultimately came to work with the San Diego County Water Authority, whose role as offtaker was the key to bringing the deal to close. Poseidon will own the plant, which will sell output to the water authority under a 30-year water purchase agreement (WPA), and the agency will own an associated pipeline, though the sponsor will be responsible for building it."

CARLSBAD, Calif. — On a calm day, a steady rain just about masks the sound of Pacific Ocean water being drawn into the intake valve from Agua Hedionda Lagoon. Listen hard, and a faint sucking sound emerges from the concrete openings, like a distant straw pulling liquid from a cup.
At the moment, the seawater is being diverted from the ocean to cool an aging natural-gas power plant. But in three years, if all goes as planned, the saltwater pulled in at that entryway will emerge as part of the regional water supply after treatment in what the project’s developers call the newest and largest seawater desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere. 

Read the full article online at ​bloomberg.com- .

After a decade of struggles to assuage environmentalists, raise almost $1 billion and win permits, Poseidon Resources Group will finally answer a critical question: Is converting seawater to drinking water a profitable venture in the U.S. when there are cheaper options? The developer of water infrastructure projects began site work last month on the Carlsbad desalination plant, the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. When completed in 2016, the facility 33 miles (53 kilometers) north of San Diego each day will create 54 million gallons of drinking water after drawing it from the salty Pacific Ocean.