By Ted Caddell

Dynegy will pay $750 million to buy out Energy Capital Partners’ 35% stake in their joint venture to purchase 17 fossil fuel plants in the U.S. owned by French utility ENGIE.

The companies announced the $3.3 billion venture, Atlas Power, in February. At the time, Dynegy said it was going to buy out Energy Capital’s stake in five years. (See Dynegy, Energy Capital to Buy 8.7 GW in $3.3B Deal.)

But Dynegy CEO Robert Flexon said Wednesday that the company decided to accelerate the purchase to take advantage of lower debt prices and more quickly integrate the generation assets into its fleet.

“The significant improvement in the financial markets since announcing the transaction in February provided an excellent opportunity for us to approach ECP about an earlier timetable,” Flexon said in a statement. “This transaction accelerates our company’s transformation, enabling us to increase our presence further in the most desirable markets with high quality assets.”

By buying out Energy Capital’s share early, Dynegy is paying $184 million less than the terms stated at the outset of the agreement. It will also save $40 million a year in interest.

When completed, the deal will give Dynegy an additional 9 GW of generation, slightly more than the initial 8.7 GW announced after updating for winter capacity. Ninety percent of the plants are natural gas-fired, in line with Dynegy’s quest to shift away from coal-fired generation. Flexon had said the company wanted to take on the ENGIE fleet on its own, but because it was committed to other acquisitions at the time, including $6.5 billion in two acquisitions of 19 plants from Duke Energy and Energy Capital, it needed to take on a partner.

Dynegy said it expects to close the ENGIE deal by the end of the year, after which the company will have a total of about 34.7 GW of generation, 71% of that gas-fired and 29% coal.