Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc (LSE: GRID), the UK’s largest operational utility-scale battery storage fund, has completed its investment in the 50MW battery project located near Thurcroft, to the east of Rotherham. Thurcroft is GRID’s largest project to date and was acquired for a total enterprise value of GBP32.5 million (plus up to GBP0.75 million of deferred contingent consideration).
Thurcroft is a battery-only site with 50MW export/import capacity, and 75MWh storage capacity. It is connected to the distribution network and the commissioning tests have now been successfully completed. The Project is expected to generate its revenues from trading whereby it imports and exports power in order to earn income from the wholesale market, and from National Grid‘s FFR tenders and Balancing Mechanism. Since energisation, this asset has also provided frequency response capacity under the new dynamic containment service procured by National Grid.
The Project has been acquired from Gresham House Devco Limited and Noriker Power Ltd.
Current Portfolio
The acquisition increases the total capacity of the 11 operational utility-scale battery storage projects in the Fund’s investment portfolio (the “Portfolio”) to 265MW.
Following the completion of the Thurcroft acquisition, GRID expects to shortly complete the acquisition of the 50MW Wickham project, bringing the Portfolio to a capacity of 315MW.
John Leggate CBE, Chair of Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc said:
“Thurcroft is our largest battery project yet and we’re delighted that it’s now live. The dynamic fluctuations in power on the National Grid during lockdown, and the unassailable rise of wind and solar installations, have sharpened the focus on the need for fast-acting, flexible storage at scale. We’re rising to this challenge by building and switching on more capacity, as the government and National Grid introduce new revenue opportunities that incentivise the wider use of battery storage in balancing the UK power system.”
About Gresham House Energy Storage Fund
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 265MW. 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 GBP238 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 174MW of Energy Storage Systems and approximately 290MW of predominantly ground-mounted solar projects. Gresham House Asset Management currently manages approximately 207MW 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.