OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings does not anticipate that a partial forced outage will impact the ratings of Solar Star Funding, LLC ('BBB-'/Stable Outlook). The project forecasts that the outage will extend through April 15th to allow for repairs and preventative maintenance.

On Feb. 9, 2016, a fault with a high-voltage transformer bushing at Solar Star 1 resulted in one of the four transformers (two at each project) being taken out of service for repairs. The outage affects 144MW, equivalent to 25% of the project's total capacity. A root cause analysis determined that the remaining transformer bushings must be replaced with updated versions to mitigate the potential for additional faults. The replacement work on the other three transformers generally results in minimal downtime taking approximately nine days to complete for each transformer. The bushing replacements and transformer repair costs are fully covered by the equipment warranties and O&M agreement.

The outage will reduce short-term revenues, although Fitch believes that the project should maintain adequate liquidity to support debt repayment during the outage period. Fitch's revised base case and rating case for 2016 indicate debt service coverage ratios of 1.34x and 1.22x, respectively, reflecting a 10 basis point reduction compared to the prior forecast. Fitch believes that Solar Star's expected near-term financial performance remains adequate to absorb additional temporary stresses. The project also benefits from a six-month debt service reserve and a six-month O&M reserve to support debt repayment and operating costs if required. Fitch's long-term outlook remains unchanged given the project's financial and operational resiliency.