Gresham House Energy Storage Fund Closing of 25MW battery project and 10MW expansion (1336L)

TIDMGRID

RNS Number : 1336L

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund

11 January 2021

11 January 2021

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC

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

Addition of 35MW further capacity takes operational portfolio to 350MW

GRID acquires 25MW Tynemouth project and completes 10MW Glassenbury B extension

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc (LSE: GRID), the UK's largest operational utility-scale battery storage fund, has completed the acquisition of a 25MW battery project located in North Shields, Tyne and Wear ("Tynemouth" or the "Project"). Tynemouth follows GRID's recent acquisitions of the 50MW Wickham and 50MW Thurcroft projects and was acquired from Enel Global Thermal Generation S.R.L.

Tynemouth is a battery-only site with c.25MW export/import capacity and is connected to the distribution network. It was commissioned in 2018 and generates availability-based contracted revenues from Enhanced Frequency Response services provided to National Grid.

In addition, the construction of the 10MW expansion of the Glassenbury portfolio project in Kent, announced in February 2020, was recently completed and is expected to be commissioned by 31 January 2021. This extension is shown below as Glassenbury B and will increase the operational capacity at the site of the original Glassenbury project to 50MW.

Current Portfolio

Following the commissioning of Glassenbury B the total operational capacity of the Fund's investment portfolio (the "Portfolio") increases to 350MW, across 13 projects as shown below.

 
 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 
 Tynemouth        Tyne and Wear       25 
 Glassenbury 
  B               Kent                10 
---------------  -----------------  ---- 
 Total                               350 
 

On 24 December 2020 the Fund announced the conditional acquisition of the 30MW Byers Brae project in Scotland, which once completed, will increase the Portfolio capacity to 380MW.

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

"These latest projects boost operational capacity by a further 11%, to 350MW. These additions to the Portfolio, and the increase in contracted revenues from Tynemouth, are a very positive way to start the new year."

Ben Guest, Fund Manager of Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc said:

"We are delighted to have achieved these recent significant milestones. We have observed with great interest the recent wholesale power price short term spikes to above GBP1,000 per MWh. This has highlighted only too well the urgent need for more energy storage capacity in the UK. We are moving swiftly to deploy the GBP120 million we raised in November into our near-term pipeline and look forward to updating shareholders on our continued progress."

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 350MW. 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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January 11, 2021 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)