This week a third US utility – American Electric Power – decided to sell of its unregulated renewables portfolio in order to get cash ready so that it can take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act, whereby it can either build transmission or new renewables projects which will be even more profitable. The AEP renewables will go to a consortium called IRP Acquisition Holdings, led by Invenergy and backed by funds from Blackstone. The deal is worth around $1.5 billion. The 14 projects are a mix of wind and solar totaling just under 1.4 GW of unregulated, contracted renewables The sale should close in Q2 and the net payment to AEP will be around $1.2 billion after costs and taxation.…