The company that owns Bermuda’s electricity supplier has just purchased an electricity supplier in Kentucky.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp said that its indirect subsidiary Liberty Utilities Co has an agreement with American Electric Power to acquire Kentucky Power Company and AEP Kentucky Transmission Company Inc for approximately $2.846 billion, which includes the assumption of approximately $1.221 billion in debt.

Kentucky Power is a state rate-regulated electricity generation, distribution and transmission utility operating within the Commonwealth of Kentucky, serving approximately 228,000 active customer connections and operating under a cost-of-service framework.

Kentucky TransCo is an electricity transmission business operating in the Kentucky portion of the transmission infrastructure that is part of the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland regional transmission organisation.

Kentucky Power and Kentucky TransCo are both regulated by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

AQN president and chief executive officer Arun Banskota said: “The acquisition of Kentucky Power and Kentucky TransCo is a continuation of AQN’s disciplined growth strategy, adding to its regulated footprint in the United States.

“Kentucky Power offers an opportunity for AQN to utilise its ‘greening the fleet’ capabilities in a complementary and constructive jurisdiction.

“Including Kentucky Power under the AQN umbrella also enables AQN to leverage its operational experience to improve customer outcomes in Kentucky by executing on AQN’s core values of providing a safe and reliable service to its customers.

“The transaction is expected to be accretive to adjusted net earnings per share and to support the company’s growth trajectory, extend AQN’s environmental leadership by providing an opportunity to replace over 1GW of rate-based fossil fuel generation with renewable energy, and add long-lived, regulated assets to its portfolio.”

The Canada-based utilities group and renewables developer paid $365 million in 2019 for 100 per cent of the outstanding shares in Ascendant Group, then owner of the Bermuda Electric Light Company the island’s sole utility for generation, transmission and distribution services on the island.