Acquisition of 49MW Battery Storage Project

RNS Number : 4594Q

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund

21 October 2019

 

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21 October 2019

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC

(the "Company" or the "Fund")

Acquisition of a 49MW utility-scale battery storage project

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc (LSE: GRID) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire a 49MW battery project (the "Project") located on the Red Scar Business Park, by the Longridge Road and the M6 outside Preston. The Project is one of the exclusivity portfolio projects identified by the Company in its IPO prospectus published in October 2018.

The Project is expected to be connected to the distribution network and the "G99" commissioning tests completed in December 2019. The Project is expected to generate 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). Following the Wolverhampton project, this will be the second acquisition by the Company since the Seed Assets were acquired at IPO.

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

Current Portfolio

The acquisition increases the total capacity of operational utility-scale battery storage projects in the Fund's investment portfolio to 124MW.

Project	Location	MW	Site type
Staunch	Staffordshire	20	Battery and generators, net export
Rufford	Nottinghamshire	7	Battery and generators, symmetrical
Lockleaze	Bristol	15	Battery, symmetrical
Littlebrook	Kent	8	Battery, symmetrical
Roundponds	Wiltshire	20	Battery and generators, net export
Wolverhampton	West Midlands	5	Battery, symmetrical
Red Scar	Lancashire	49	Battery, symmetrical
Total		124

Pipeline

Three further utility-scale battery storage assets, two of 50MW capacity each and one of 5MW capacity, are expected to commence construction imminently (the "Exclusivity Pipeline"). These assets are also being developed by the Developers.  Therefore, the Company is expected to have 229MW in operation by the end of Q1 2020.

In addition, following the successful placing of 40,432,650 Shares announced on 11 October 2019, there is a further pipeline of projects under evaluation, including operational energy storage systems ("ESS") and other pre-construction ESS projects.  These were referred to in the announcement of the recent placing, dated 3 October 2019 as the "Further Pipeline".

For further information, please contact:

Gresham House New Energy Ben Guest	[phone]
Cantor Fitzgerald Europe Richard Harris Robert Peel Alan Ray	[phone] [phone] [phone]
Montfort Communications Gay Collins Louis Supple	[e-mail] [phone] [phone]

About the Company and the Manager:

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc owns a portfolio of six utility-scale operational energy storage systems (known as ESS) located in Great Britain. The portfolio has a total capacity of 75MW. 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 £202 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 75MW of Energy Storage Systems and approximately 290MW of predominantly ground-mounted solar projects. Gresham House Asset Management currently manages approximately 200MW 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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