Middle River Power (MRP), acquired by Partners Group in 2025, has purchased the Panoche Energy Center from an Ares Infrastructure Equity fund for undisclosed terms. Located in Firebaugh, California, Panoche is a fully contracted 427-megawatt natural gas generation facility. Ares had backed the asset since its development 20 years ago.
The deal follows MRP's acquisitions earlier this year of the 240-megawatt Midway-Sunset facility in Kern County, California, and the 250-megawatt Brush facility in Morgan County, Colorado. MRP is an independent power producer and asset management company that repositions existing generation assets through co-located and hybrid development projects.
MRP plans to apply its hybridization strategy to Panoche, pairing thermal capacity with storage to serve demand from utilities, data centers and industrial offtakers. "We believe that Panoche will continue to provide reliable, efficient, and flexible capacity to the California grid," said Keith Derman, head of Ares Infrastructure Equity.
Editor's note: This news brief was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
Source: PE Hub · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing