Gresham House Energy Storage Fund Acquisition of Battery Storage Project (7543J)

TIDMGRID

RNS Number : 7543J

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund

24 December 2020

24 December 2020

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC

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

Acquisition of large utility-scale battery storage project

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC (LSE: GRID), the UK's largest operational utility-scale battery storage fund, has conditionally agreed to acquire a c.30MW battery project located near Wester Dechmont, Livingston in West Lothian, Scotland ("Byers Brae") (the "Project"). The Project is part of the pipeline described in the Fund's Prospectus published on 10 November 2020.

Byers Brae is a battery-only site with a c.30MW/30MW export/import capacity which is currently expected to be commissioned in Q2 2021. The Project is expected to generate revenues primarily from asset optimisation (whereby it imports and exports power to earn income from the wholesale market and the National Grid-administered Balancing Mechanism), together with frequency response services.

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 345MW.

 
 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 
 Bloxwich         West Midlands       41 
 Thurcroft        South Yorkshire     50 
 Wickham          Suffolk             50 
                  West Lothian, 
 Byers Brae        Scotland           30 
 
 Total                               345 
 

In addition to the above portfolio, the Fund has a 25MW project in the advanced stages of due diligence, and shortly expects to commission a further 10MW of capacity at its Glassenbury project.

Ben Guest, Fund Manager and Head of Gresham House New Energy, said:

"Byers Brae is our first project in Scotland and is expected to help National Grid balance wind generation in the north with power demand in the south. It is located at a point between Edinburgh and Glasgow where physical constraints exist in the transmission system and is therefore expected to benefit from additional revenue System Actions in the Balancing Mechanism."

For further information, please contact:

 
Gresham House New Energy 
 Ben Guest                        [phone] 
Jefferies International Limited 
 Stuart Klein 
 Gaudi Le Roux 
 Neil Winward                     [phone] 
KL Communications                 [e-mail] 
 Charles Gorman                    [phone] 
 Camilla Esmund 
 Alex Hogan 
 

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 315MW. 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 GBP100 million of gross proceeds from investors. Including issuance under the Placing Programme, it has now raised a total of approximately GBP358 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 234MW of Energy Storage Systems and approximately 290MW of predominantly ground-mounted solar projects. Gresham House Asset Management currently manages approximately 232MW 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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December 24, 2020 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)