First US Storage Project Acquisition

RNS Number : 3258E

Gore Street Energy Storage Fund PLC

10 March 2022

 

10 March 2022

Gore Street Energy Storage Fund plc

(the "Company" or "Gore Street")

First US Storage Project Acquisition

Entering a highly attractive new geography

Further diversifying and enhancing Company revenues

Gore Street, London's first energy storage fund supporting the transition to low carbon power, is pleased to announce that it will acquire a portfolio of eight energy storage assets in Texas from Perfect Power Solutions Texas, LLC ("PPST"), a portfolio company of SER Capital Partners, and an affiliate of Perfect Power, LLC. The portfolio consists of eight 9.9 MW storage projects totalling 79.2 MW.  Three of the projects - which are each 2-hour duration / 20 MWh systems - have been operating since September 2021 and the remaining five should enter operation within twelve months, delivering an expected total portfolio of c.160 MWh. Following the acquisition, the Company will have 262 MW in operating assets, and a total portfolio of 708 MW, including the 28 MWh German acquisition announced last week.

The PPST portfolio is Gore Street's first US investment, and further diversifies the Company's revenue streams and geographic exposure. The PPST assets participate in Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) which provides electricity to most of the state and is one of four main grid interconnections in North America. Texas has significantly increased the deployment of intermittent renewable energy whilst baseload thermal generation is being retired across the state. The assets help to balance ERCOT's grid by providing ancillary services, primarily through Response Reserve Service ("RRS") market. In addition, the assets can participate in Day Ahead / Real Time Trading to capture market and system wide volatility.

The three operational sites use LG Energy Solutions lithium-ion batteries. The operational projects' modular design and unused land in site may present future expansion opportunities to extend the assets in both power and energy capacity.

The parties to the transaction have signed the purchase agreement and the acquisition is expected to close within 30 days subject to satisfaction of lease, grid, and permitting conditions.

Alex O'Cinneide, CEO of Gore Street Capital, the Company's investment manager, commented:

"We are pleased to be able to announce a further landmark international acquisition shortly after our entry into the energy storage market in continental Europe, highlighting the manager's ability to acquire value accretive assets across the globe. The acquisition further underpins our push into international markets, where they exhibit the same favourable characteristics as in GB and Ireland, meeting our returns criteria.

We have been looking at both the European and US markets for a significant period to assess the best entry points. The electricity grids of individual states act as islands, in many ways like GB and Ireland, with their own challenges and opportunities. This acquisition presents a new high-quality counterparty, ERCOT, for our services within a significant market managing the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texan customers. The portfolio itself presents a blend of operational and development assets which adds immediate revenue generating assets to our portfolio, whilst providing the opportunity to utilise our proven in house technical and development capabilities to deliver systems at a competitive cost in an attractive market."

ENDS

The Legal Entity Identifier of the Company is 213800GPUNVGG81G4O21.

For further information:

Gore Street Capital Limited
Alex O'Cinneide / Paula Travesso / Maria Vaggione	Tel: [phone]
Shore Capital (Joint Corporate Broker)
Anita Ghanekar/ Rose Ramsden /Iain Sexton  (Corporate Advisory) Fiona Conroy (Corporate Broking)	Tel: [phone]

J. P. Morgan Cazenove (Joint Corporate Broker)
William Simmonds / Jérémie Birnbaum (Corporate Finance)	Tel: [phone]

Buchanan (Media enquiries)
Charles Ryland / Henry Wilson / George Beale	Tel: [phone]
	Email: [e-mail]

JTC (UK) Limited, Company Secretary

Tel: [phone]

Notes to Editors

About Gore Street Energy Storage Fund plc

Gore Street is London's first listed energy storage fund and seeks to provide Shareholders with a significant opportunity to invest in a diversified portfolio of utility scale energy storage projects. In addition to growth through exploiting its considerable pipeline, the Company aims to deliver consistent and robust dividend yield as income distributions to its Shareholders. 

About SER Capital Partners

SER Capital Partners is an independent, middle-market private equity firm dedicated to investing in North American sustainable industrial, environmental, and renewable businesses. Its leadership team has meaningful experience building, leading, investing in, and exiting businesses that further efforts for decarbonization and a circular economy. SER seeks to create meaningful economic value and measurable sustainability benefits in partnership with talented management teams. More information is available at www.sercapitalpartners.com.

 

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