Portfolio Update and Acquisition of Two Projects

RNS Number : 3320B

Gore Street Energy Storage Fund PLC

20 September 2018

 

20 September 2018

Gore Street Energy Storage Fund plc

(the "Company" or "Gore Street")

Portfolio Update

Acquisition of Two Additional Projects

Gore Street, London's first listed energy storage fund investing in income producing assets in the UK and internationally, is pleased to announce the acquisition of two additional UK energy storage projects with a combined installed capacity of 19 MW. This is Gore Street's first investment following the acquisition of the two seed assets in June 2018 and the successful IPO of the fund on 25 May 2018 ("IPO").  With this acquisition the Gore Street portfolio now consists of 4 assets totalling 29MW. With a deep pipeline of assets in or nearing exclusivity Gore Street is well positioned to lead in this market.

The two projects are located at Lower Road in Brentwood, Essex, as referenced in the IPO prospectus and at the Port of Tilbury in London. Lower Road will be a 10MW "front of the meter" project and Port of Tilbury will be a 9MW "behind the meter" project co-located with London's Port of Tilbury industrial port facility.

Both projects were acquired from Origami Energy and are 100% owned by Gore Street. They have in place all land rights, planning and other consents and grid access rights necessary to start construction and enter operations. The projects will benefit from three diversified revenue stream contracts including services to the capacity market, participating in TRIADs and providing dynamic firm frequency response services to the National Grid. These contracts account for around a quarter of its first year aggregate project capacity. The latest auctions for frequency services are dominated by one and six month contracts and so the company will be bidding for multiple contracts for the additional three quarters, to maintain the projects at full utilisation once commissioned. Once operational these assets will use Origami Energy's technology platform.  

Gore Street has agreed pricing terms for the battery systems for the projects and is in advanced negotiations to finalise legal documentation for battery procurement and engineering, procurement and construction contractual arrangements. It is expected that these projects, helped by further declines in capex costs, will deliver IRRs in line with those targets set out in the prospectus. Construction will commence shortly and the projects will be operational in Q2 2019.

These acquisitions follow the purchase of a seed portfolio of two operational assets, Boulby and Cenin, in June 2018, as referenced in the prospectus, through a special purpose vehicle with a mixture of equity and debt for a total consideration of £7.3 million. Boulby is a 6.0 MW site wholly owned by Gore Street, co-located with an industrial mining complex in Cleveland, North Yorkshire, using batteries provided by NEC Energy Solutions. Cenin is a 4.0 MW site which is 49% owned by Gore Street co-located with a renewable generation asset in Bridgend, Wales, using batteries supplied by Tesla. Both assets are already providing stable income to the Company.

Following finalisation of capital procurement and execution of the engineering, procurement and construction contract the fund will be over 50% committed.

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

"We are delighted by our progress in deploying our IPO proceeds in building London's first listed diversified portfolio of energy storage assets. The portfolio will provide a reliable and robust income opportunity and grant investors access to a nascent and rapidly growing infrastructure sub-sector that also represents a major new renewable technology market for environmentally conscious investors. We continue to see valuable opportunities within our significant pipeline and anticipate updating shareholders with further positive progress in due course. Furthermore, we are in negotiation with potential partners for a significant number of projects under exclusivity that we look forward to funding in due course."

The Legal Entity Identifier of the Company is 213800GPUNVGG81G4O21.

For further information:

Gore Street Capital Limited
Alex O'Cinneide	Tel: [phone]
Stockdale Securities Limited
Daniel Harris / Rose Ramsden (Corporate Finance)	Tel: [phone]
Henry Willcocks / Fiona Conroy (Corporate Broking)
Media enquiries:
Buchanan
Charles Ryland / Steph Watson / Henry Wilson	Tel: [phone]
	Email: [e-mail]

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.

 

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