The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Dec. 12 approved NRG Energy Inc.'s sale of a portfolio of fossil-fueled generating assets in Louisiana to Cleco Cajun LLC.

NRG in February filed for FERC approval of the sale of its 3,555-MW NRG South Central Generating LLC portfolio to Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC. This sale includes the 225-MW Bayou Cove, 430-MW Big Cajun 1, 1,461-MW Big Cajun 2, 1,263-MW Cottonwood Energy and 176-MW Sterlington gas-fired plants.

NRG is divesting the portfolio for a total purchase price and cash proceeds of $1 billion, according to the companies' February announcement of the deal.

Cleco Corporate Holdings subsidiary Cleco Energy LLC will acquire the power plants and lease the Cottonwood Energy plant to a newly formed subsidiary of NRG Energy through May 2025. Cleco Energy changed its name to Cleco Cajun in March. (FERC docket EC18-63)

The Cleco announcement came on the same day NRG announced plans to sell its stake in NRG Yield Inc., which then changed its name to Clearway Energy Inc., and to sell its renewable energy development businesses to private equity investor Global Infrastructure Partners.