AltaGas Ltd. Receives Independent Arbitration Panel Ruling Regarding Claim of Force Majeure on Sundance Unit 3

AltaGas Ltd. ("AltaGas") (TSX:ALA) (TSX:ALA.PR.A) (TSX:ALA.PR.U) received the ruling of the independent arbitration panel which evaluated the merits of a force majeure claim in relation to outages of the Sundance 3 facility that first occurred in the second quarter 2010.

The independent arbitration panel issued its ruling on November 22, 2012 which granted partial force majeure relief to the operator of the facility. Based on this decision, AltaGas expects to receive a cash payment of approximately $5 million from the operator of the facility and expects to record an after-tax, non-cash charge of approximately $8 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.

In June 2010, the facility operator declared force majeure due to the mechanical failure of critical generator components at its 353 megawatt (MW) Sundance 3 generator. Based on information available at that time, AltaGas and its partner in the ASTC Power Partnership disagreed with the operator's claim and initiated the dispute resolution process prescribed by the Power Purchase Arrangement. This resulted in a binding arbitration process that was conducted earlier in 2012.