8. Derivative Instruments

From time to time, the Company enters into derivative financial instruments to manage certain cash flow risks.

Derivatives designated and qualifying as a hedge of the exposure to variability in the cash flows of a specific asset or liability that is attributable to a particular risk, such as interest rate risk, are considered cash flow hedges.

Interest Rate Swaps

The Company’s objectives in using interest rate swaps are to reduce variability in interest expense and to manage exposure to adverse interest rate movements. To accomplish this objective, the Company primarily uses interest rate swaps as part of its interest rate risk management strategy. Interest rate swaps designated as cash flow hedges involve the receipt of variable amounts from a counterparty in exchange for the Company making fixed-rate payments over the life of the agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount.

On April 5, 2017, the Company entered into forward interest rate swap agreements with an aggregate notional amount of $400 million. The forward swap agreements effectively fix the interest rate on $400 million of term loan borrowings, $200 million of swaps allocated to each term loan, from January 2, 2018 through December 17, 2021 and April 27, 2022, respectively, at approximately 3.3% assuming the current LIBOR spread of 1.3%.

On December 20, 2018, the Company entered into additional forward interest rate swap agreements with an aggregate notional amount of $400 million. The forward swap agreements effectively fix the interest rate on $400 million of term loan borrowings, $200 million of swaps allocated to each term loan, from December 17, 2021 and April 27, 2022 through the current maturity dates of the respective term loans which are December 17, 2023 and April 27, 2024, respectively. The weighted average effective fixed interest rate on the $400 million notional amount of term loan financing following the execution of these swap agreements will approximate 3.9%, commencing on December 17, 2021 and April 27, 2022, assuming the current LIBOR spread of 1.3%. Additionally, the Company entered into forward interest rate swap agreements with an aggregate notional amount of $200 million. The forward swap agreements effectively fix the interest rate on $200 million of additional term loan borrowings, $100 million of swaps allocated to each term loan, from January 2, 2020 through the current maturity dates of December 17, 2023 and April 27, 2024, respectively. The weighted average effective fixed interest rate on the $200 million notional amount of term loan financing, following the execution of these swap agreements, will approximate 3.9%, commencing on January 2, 2020, assuming the current LIBOR spread of 1.3%.

The Company reflects its interest rate swap agreements, which are designated as cash flow hedges, at fair value as either assets or liabilities on the consolidated balance sheets within the “Other assets, net” or “Advance rents, security deposits and other liabilities” line items, as applicable. As of March 31, 2019, the fair value of interest rate swaps included an asset of $1.9 million as well as a liability of $7.7 million. As of December 31, 2018, the fair value of interest rate swaps included an asset of $5.3 million as well as a liability of $3.0 million.

The forward interest rate swap agreements are derivatives that currently qualify for hedge accounting whereby the Company records the effective portion of changes in fair value of the interest rate swaps in accumulated other comprehensive income or loss on the consolidated balance sheets and statements of comprehensive income which is subsequently reclassified into earnings in the period that the hedged forecasted transaction affects earnings. Any ineffective portion of a derivative's change in fair value is immediately recognized within net income. The amount reclassified from other comprehensive income to interest income on the consolidated statements of operations was $0.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019. The amount reclassified from other comprehensive income to interest expense on the consolidated statements of operations was $0.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018. There was no ineffectiveness recognized for the three months ended March 31, 2019, and 2018. During the subsequent twelve months, beginning April 1, 2019, we estimate that $1.3 million will be reclassified from other comprehensive income as a reduction to interest expense.

Interest rate derivatives and their fair values as of March 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018 were as follows (unaudited and in thousands):


				Fixed One Month
Notional Amount				LIBOR rate per			Fair Value
March 31, 2019		December 31, 2018		annum	Effective Date	Expiration Date	March 31, 2019		December 31, 2018
$	25,000	$	25,000	1.989%	January 2, 2018	December 17, 2021	$	131	$	331
	100,000		100,000	1.989%	January 2, 2018	December 17, 2021		523		1,318
	75,000		75,000	1.989%	January 2, 2018	December 17, 2021		392		990
	50,000		50,000	2.033%	January 2, 2018	April 27, 2022		213		667
	100,000		100,000	2.029%	January 2, 2018	April 27, 2022		436		1,341
	50,000		50,000	2.033%	January 2, 2018	April 27, 2022		212		666
	100,000		100,000	2.617%	January 2, 2020	December 17, 2023		(1,935)		(782)
	100,000		100,000	2.621%	January 2, 2020	April 27, 2024		(2,071)		(818)
	200,000		200,000	2.636%	December 17, 2021	December 17, 2023		(1,911)		(722)
	200,000		200,000	2.642%	April 27, 2022	April 27, 2024		(1,809)		(648)
$	1,000,000	$	1,000,000				$	(5,819)	$	2,343

Power Purchase Agreements

In March 2019, QTS entered into two 10 year agreements to purchase renewable energy equal to the expected electricity needs of the Company’s datacenters in Chicago, Illinois and Piscataway, New Jersey. These arrangements currently qualify for hedge accounting whereby the Company records the changes in fair value of the instruments in “Accumulated other comprehensive income” or loss on the consolidated balance sheets and statements of comprehensive income which is subsequently reclassified into earnings in the period that the hedged forecasted transaction affects earnings. The Company currently reflects these agreements, which are designated as cash flow hedges, at fair value as liabilities on the consolidated balance sheets within the “Advance rents, security deposits and other liabilities” line items.

Power purchase agreement derivatives and their fair values as of March 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018 were as follows (unaudited and in thousands):


				Fair Value
Counterparty	Facility	Effective Date	Expiration Date	March 31, 2019		December 31, 2018
Calpine Energy Solutions, LLC	Piscataway	3/8/2019	2/28/2029	$	(636)	$	—
Calpine Energy Solutions, LLC	Chicago	3/8/2019	2/28/2029		(1,055)		—
				$	(1,691)	$	—