BROOKFIELD - Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (TSX: BEP.UN; NYSE: BEP) ('Brookfield Renewable Partners', 'BEP') today reported financial results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2023.
'2023 was a record year for our business on almost all metrics. We generated record FFO per unit, added almost 5,000 megawatts of capacity through development, and deployed or committed $9 billion into growth along with our partners. We delivered these results in a rising rate environment and one where supply chains were facing challenges, demonstrating how our access to scale capital and disciplined approach to development and underwriting differentiate our business and allows us to perform across market cycles,' said Connor Teskey, CEO of Brookfield Renewable.
'Going forward we are well positioned to continue benefiting from accelerating demand for clean power from corporate customers, and specifically the large global technology companies, whose increasing appetite for clean power is being driven by data center demand, with securing clean energy now squarely on their critical path to growth.'
Brookfield Renewable generated record FFO of $1,095 million or $1.67 per Unit for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, a 7% increase on a per Unit basis over the same period in the prior year, including solid fourth quarter results that increased 9% per Unit year-on-year. The results reflect the benefit of our diverse asset base, high-quality inflation-linked and contracted cash flows, organic growth, and contributions from acquisitions. After deducting non-cash depreciation and other expenses, our Net loss attributable to Unitholders for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023 was $100 million or $0.32 per unit.
Other highlights for the year include
We advanced commercial priorities including securing contracts for new developments for almost 50 terawatt hours of generation, of which over 90% is with corporate customers.
Accelerated our development activities, commissioning almost 5,000 megawatts of new clean energy capacity globally across wind, solar and battery storage, further diversifying and growing our cash flows. We expect commissioned capacity to contribute $60 million of incremental FFO annually on a run-rate basis.
Our advanced stage development pipeline expanded to almost 24,000 megawatts which is expected to contribute approximately $300 million of FFO annually to Brookfield Renewable once commissioned.
Deployed, or agreed to deploy a record $9 billion of capital ($2 billion net to Brookfield Renewable) into accretive investments across all of our key markets and closed a number of significant transactions in the fourth quarter including Westinghouse and Deriva Energy, immediately growing our cash flows.
We continued to execute on our capital recycling initiatives generating $800 million of proceeds ($500 million net to Brookfield Renewable) representing nearly three times our invested capital, and providing funds for growth.
Strengthened our best-in-class balance sheet executing approximately $15 billion of financings and finishing the year with available liquidity of over $4 billion, positioning the business to opportunistically deploy capital at strong risk adjusted returns.
We continue to deliver attractive risk adjusted returns
We were well equipped to navigate the rising rate environment and supply chain challenges that faced the sector over the past twelve-months. Most notably, our disciplined approach to development, which focuses on removing risks upfront, meant that our development activities remained robust, delivering a record year, at a time when some market participants saw headwinds. Lastly, our prudent approach to financing our business, combined with the strength of our balance sheet, durability of our cash flows, and diverse sources of scale capital, ensured that we were able to continue to pursue growth at a time when some could not and there was less competition.
We capitalized on opportunities, deploying or agreeing to deploy $9 billion of capital ($2 billion net to Brookfield Renewable) highlighted by our acquisitions of Westinghouse, Deriva Energy, a further 50% interest in X-Elio which we did not own, Banks Renewables, and investments in CleanMax and Avaada in India.
While our proposed acquisition of Origin Energy did not receive the required level of shareholder support, which was a condition precedent to the closing of the transaction, we are confident in achieving our target deployment of $7-8 billion over the next five years and growing our cash flows and distributions in-line with our targets. Since the initial announcement of the Origin transaction, we have received in-bounds from businesses around the world who are seeking a partner with significant capital and deep operating expertise to accelerate their transition goals and enhance the value of their businesses.
In light of public market conditions and our strong conviction in the intrinsic value of our business and growth trajectory, we continued to allocate capital to repurchase shares. In 2023, we repurchased 2 million units under our normal course issuer bid. Looking forward, we will continue to allocate capital based on where we are seeing the best risk-adjusted returns and remain confident we will continue to create meaningful value for our investors.
We have been scaling our development capabilities and delivered almost 5,000 megawatts in the past year, a record for our business, while also pulling forward our pipeline. Our advanced stage development pipeline now stands at almost 24,000 megawatts with just under 7,000 megawatts on track to be delivered this year and over 7,000 megawatts in 2025. These projects are well advanced with almost 25% of our three year pipeline under construction, over 20% with revenues and inputs fully contracted and over 30% in the final stages of securing PPAs and construction contracts. These projects and our remaining advanced stage pipeline are expected to contribute approximately $300 million of incremental run-rate FFO once commissioned.
Operating Results
Our operating business continued to perform well and we delivered record FFO despite cyclical resource volatility and generation below the long term average at some of our assets. We generated FFO of $1.1 billion, or $1.67 per Unit, a 7% per Unit increase year-over-year and a 9% increase per Unit in the fourth quarter. While our results fell slightly below our target of 10%+ FFO per Unit growth, largely due to later than expected transaction closings during the fourth quarter, we remain well positioned to achieve our goal going into 2024 and beyond.
We are already seeing the benefits of our growth activities which were back-end weighted this year with commissioning of nearly half of our almost 5,000 megawatts of new capacity in the fourth quarter and the closing of major acquisitions contributing over $100 million in incremental annual FFO in the final three months of the year. We expect to also receive an uplift as our fleet reverts to its long-term average generation, particularly from our hydro assets where we often see cyclicality.
Additionally, we expect that our growth initiatives will continue to stabilize our results going forward, not only increasingly diversifying our cash flows, but also enhancing the contracted and less variable components of our business. As we continue to diversify our business, we are reducing the volatility of our results and helping to minimize our exposure to any underlying resource to deliver our earnings growth targets. While we constantly update and monitor our long-term average resource figures for financings and management of our operations, the impact of these metrics on our financial performance is being mitigated by our broader development, growth, and contracting initiatives.
Our hydroelectric segment delivered FFO of $624 million. Despite a more challenging year from a resource perspective in our high value markets, the portfolio performed well, benefiting from strong all-in power prices. Reservoirs have rebounded to start 2024, with the first quarter trending positively compared with the end of 2023.
Our wind and solar segments generated a combined $643 million of FFO benefiting from the commissioning of new projects, repowering activities and our inflation linked contracted generation. As is expected during a period of rapid growth, we have acquired a number of assets that were performing below their long-term average generation under prior ownership. As part of our business plans, we leverage our operational capabilities, through repowering and other upgrades, to drive improvement in these assets back to their long-term average levels in the first few years post-ownership. We have been executing several repowering and upgrade initiatives in the past couple years that are expected to be completed and start contributing higher earnings this year.
Our distributed energy and storage, and sustainable solutions segments generated a combined $185 million of FFO, benefiting from organic growth as we scale these businesses. We continue to see positive momentum for the more nascent technologies that sit in our sustainable solutions segment. For example, our Canadian carbon capture and storage business Entropy entered into a fixed price 15-year carbon credit offtake agreement with the Canada Growth Fund that guarantees an offtake price for 600 Kt per annum of CO2, de-risking the project pipeline. Alongside the offtake agreement, Canada Growth Fund agreed to invest up to C$200 million in the business at approximately one and half times our value entry point.
Balance Sheet And Liquidity
We finished the year in an excellent financial position with over $4 billion of available liquidity providing significant flexibility to fund our growth. Our best-in-class balance sheet and access to diverse sources of capital continue to differentiate our business and enable us to opportunistically invest when capital becomes scarce, as we demonstrated this year, adding quality businesses at attractive risk-adjusted returns.
During the year we strengthened our financial position executing on almost $15 billion in non-recourse financings generating almost $500 million in upfinancing proceeds to Brookfield Renewable. We also recently updated our Green Financing Framework to incorporate eligible investment categories in-line with our strategy to invest in businesses and projects that support the transition to net zero. We subsequently took advantage of a favorable market environment in early January, issuing C$400 million of 30-year notes at 5.3%, conservatively raising debt as our cash flows grow, maintaining our investment grade rating and meaningfully extending our debt maturity profile.
We were successful with our capital recycling program generating $800 million in proceeds ($500 million net to Brookfield Renewable) over the past twelve-months, representing almost three times our invested capital. Our recycling initiatives are a consistent source of funding which we will continue to scale with our growth in development activities. We take a disciplined and practical approach to asset rotation, looking to sell assets when they are in-demand and attracting valuations at or above our internal assessments, regardless of technology or geography.
We sold a 150-megawatt solar project in Spain which we commissioned in early 2023 generating $100 million in proceeds ($20 million net to Brookfield Renewable). We also executed the sale of a minority interest in a portfolio of contracted wind assets in Canada which we developed over ten years ago returning over three and half times our invested capital over this period.
Our approach to selling assets that are in demand irrespective of technology or geography has served us well and generated meaningful returns above our underwriting targets for investors. We expect to continue to leverage this funding source going forward as we bring online new projects and acquire new platforms.
Distribution Declaration
The next quarterly distribution in the amount of $0.355 per LP unit, is payable on March 28, 2024 to unitholders of record as at the close of business on February 29, 2024. This represents a 5% increase to our distribution, bringing our total annual distribution per unit to $1.42.
In conjunction with the Partnership's distribution declaration, the Board of Directors of BEPC have declared an equivalent quarterly dividend of $0.355 per share, also payable on March 28, 2024 to shareholders of record as at the close of business on February 29, 2024.
The quarterly dividends on BEP's preferred shares and preferred LP units have also been declared.
Distribution Currency Option
The quarterly distributions payable on the BEP units and BEPC shares are declared in U.S. dollars. Unitholders who are residents in the United States will receive payment in U.S. dollars and unitholders who are residents in Canada will receive the Canadian dollar equivalent unless they request otherwise. The Canadian dollar equivalent of the quarterly distribution will be based on the Bank of Canada daily average exchange rate on the record date or, if the record date falls on a weekend or holiday, on the Bank of Canada daily average exchange rate of the preceding business day.
Registered unitholders who are residents in Canada who wish to receive a U.S. dollar distribution and registered unitholders who are residents in the United States wishing to receive the Canadian dollar distribution equivalent should contact Brookfield Renewable's transfer agent, Computershare Trust Company of Canada, in writing at 100 University Avenue, 8th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2Y1 or by phone at 1-800-564-6253. Beneficial unitholders (i.e., those holding their units in street name with their brokerage) should contact the broker with whom their units are held.
Distribution Reinvestment Plan
Brookfield Renewable Partners maintains a Distribution Reinvestment Plan ('DRIP') which allows holders of BEP units who are residents in Canada to acquire additional LP units by reinvesting all or a portion of their cash distributions without paying commissions. Information on the DRIP, including details on how to enroll, is available on our website at www.bep.brookfield.com/stock-and-distribution/distributions/drip.
Additional information on Brookfield Renewable's distributions and preferred share dividends can be found on our website at www.bep.brookfield.com.
Brookfield Renewable
Brookfield Renewable operates one of the world's largest publicly traded platforms for renewable power and sustainable solutions. Our renewable power portfolio consists of hydroelectric, wind, utility-scale solar and storage facilities in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, and totals almost 33,000 megawatts of installed capacity and a development pipeline of approximately 155,000 megawatts. Our portfolio of sustainable solutions assets includes our investments in Westinghouse (a leading global nuclear services business) and a utility and independent power producer with operations in the Caribbean and Latin America to facilitate the decarbonization of its operations, as well as 57 thousand metric tons per annum of carbon capture and storage capacity, annual production capacity of 3 million Metric Million British thermal units ('MMBtu') of agricultural renewable natural gas and recycling capacity of over 1 million tons of materials annually. Our sustainable solutions development pipeline consists of 14 million metric tons per annum of carbon capture and storage capacity, 3.5 million MMBtu of renewable natural gas production annually, 1.6 million tons of recycled material annual capacity, 1 million tons of annual Green Ammonia production capacity and 5,000 megawatts of annual solar panel manufacturing capacity.
Investors can access the portfolio either through Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE: BEP; TSX: BEP.UN), a Bermuda-based limited partnership, or Brookfield Renewable Corporation (NYSE, TSX: BEPC), a Canadian corporation. Further information is available at https://bep.brookfield.com. Important information may be disseminated exclusively via the website; investors should consult the site to access this information.
Brookfield Renewable is the flagship listed renewable power company of Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative asset manager with over $850 billion of assets under management.
Please note that Brookfield Renewable's previous audited annual and unaudited quarterly reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') and securities regulators in Canada, are available on our website at https://bep.brookfield.com, on SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on SEDAR+'s website at www.sedarplus.ca. Hard copies of the annual and quarterly reports can be obtained free of charge upon request.
Contact:
Simon Maine
Managing Director
Vice President
Tel: +44 (0) 739 890 9278
Email: simon.maine@brookfield.com
BROOKFIELD RENEWABLE PARTNERS L.P. 
