LONDON: Gresham House Energy Storage Fund has completed its investment in a symmetrical 5MW battery-only project based in Wolverhampton for a total enterprise value of approximately £3.5 million.
The project is one of the exclusivity portfolio projects identified by the Company in its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus published in October 2018.
The project was connected to the distribution network and the “G59” commissioning tests were successfully witnessed and completed in April 2019.
Project generates its revenues primarily from asset optimisation (whereby it imports and exports power in order to earn income from the wholesale market and the National Grid-administered Balancing Mechanism).
As such, the Fund’s Manager, Gresham House Asset Management, believes that the Project is aligned to the Company’s investment criteria since it enables the Fund to implement its asset optimisation business model, which existing and future sites are also expected to adopt over time.
The project has been acquired from a vehicle owned by Gresham House DevCo Limited and Noriker Power Limited.
The company continues to benefit from a strong pipeline of new opportunities and expects to acquire its next utility-scale battery storage asset, of 49MW capacity, by the end of the year when the developers have completed its construction and brought it online.
Two further utility-scale battery storage assets, of 50MW capacity each, are expected to commence construction imminently; one at the end of September and the other at the end of October 2019. The Fund is expected to have 229MW in operation by the end of Q1 2020.
Ben Guest, Head of Gresham House New Energy, commented: “We are pleased to have completed our investment in Wolverhampton. Utility-scale battery storage is crucial to a renewable energy future in the UK and has significant potential from an investment standpoint.”
“Our team’s unique experience of developing and operating utility-scale battery storage assets, coupled with the Fund’s pipeline of projects, will be able to deliver excellent shareholder value in what is a rapidly emerging next generation infrastructure sector.”
“We are determined to be part of this revolution that will contribute significantly towards a low carbon economy and are focused on successfully developing our remaining pipeline of utility-scale battery storage projects over the coming months.”