Acquisition of Battery Storage Project

RNS Number : 8883G

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund

20 March 2020

 

20 March 2020

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC

(the "Company", "Fund" or "GRID")

Acquisition of largest utility-scale battery storage project to date

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc (LSE: GRID) has conditionally agreed to acquire a 50MW battery project located near Thurcroft, to the east of Rotherham ("Thurcroft") (the "Project"). The Project will be GRID's largest project to date, and part of the exclusivity pipeline identified in the Company's October 2018 IPO prospectus.

Thurcroft is a battery-only site with a 50MW export/import capacity and commissioning is expected in Q2 2020. The Project is expected to generate 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).

The Project will be acquired from Gresham House DevCo Limited and Noriker Power Ltd (together, the "Developers").

Current Portfolio

Once completed, the acquisition increases the total capacity of operational utility-scale battery storage projects in the Fund's investment portfolio to 224MW.

Project	Location	MW
Staunch	Staffordshire	20
Rufford	Nottinghamshire	7
Lockleaze	Bristol	15
Littlebrook	Kent	8
Roundponds	Wiltshire	20
Wolverhampton	West Midlands	5
Glassenbury	Kent	40
Cleator Moor	Cumbria	10
Red Scar	Lancashire	49
Thurcroft	South Yorkshire	50
Total		224

Once the Thurcroft acquisition is completed, GRID expects to update the market on the following plans:

· the acquisition of the 50MW project located at Wickham Market

· commissioning a 10MW extension to the Glassenbury project ("Glassenbury B")

· concluding due diligence on an operational project which has the potential for expansion to over 50MW, subject to attainment of necessary consents

John Leggate CBE, Chairman of Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc said:

"We are pleased to have acquired the 50MW Thurcroft project, which follows our addition of 99MW of capacity in December and our recent fundraise. Ben Guest and his team continue to work hard to meet our ambitions for GRID and to invest shareholders' funds in long-term income-producing storage assets."

For further information, please contact: 

Gresham House New Energy Ben Guest	[phone]
Cantor Fitzgerald Europe Richard Harris Robert Peel Alan Ray	[phone] [phone] [phone]
KL Communications Charles Gorman Camilla Esmund Alex Hogan	[e-mail] [phone]

About the Company and the Manager:

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc owns a portfolio of utility-scale operational energy storage systems (known as ESS) located in Great Britain. The portfolio has a total capacity of 174MW. The Company is managed by Gresham House Asset Management Limited under the leadership of Ben Guest. The Company was admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange (Specialist Fund Segment) on 13 November 2018 having raised £100 million of gross proceeds from investors. Including issuance under the Placing Programme, it has now raised a total of approximately £237 million of gross proceeds from investors.

The Gresham House New Energy team has a proven track record in developing and operating energy storage and other renewable assets having developed 124MW of Energy Storage Systems and approximately 290MW of predominantly ground-mounted solar projects. Gresham House Asset Management currently manages approximately 195MW of solar and wind energy projects.

Gresham House Asset Management is the FCA authorised operating business of Gresham House plc, a London Stock Exchange quoted specialist alternative asset manager. Gresham House is committed to operating responsibly and sustainably, taking the long view in delivering sustainable investment solutions.

www.greshamhouse.com

Definition of Utility-scale battery Storage Systems

Utility-scale battery storage systems are the enabling infrastructure that will support the continued growth of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, essential to the UK's stated target to reduce carbon emissions. They store excess energy generated by renewable energy sources and then release that stored energy back into the grid during peak hours when there is increased demand for it.

 

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