In a major week for European BESS deal-making, project acquisition and financing deals have been done in the Poland, Germany, Finland, the UK and Romania for grid-scale projects totalling well over 1GW of capacity.
UK BESS owner Gresham House Energy Storage Fund (GRID) has entered into long-term floor agreements with Statkraft and Markel Bermuda, which will partially replace its toll with Octopus once that expires next year.
UK BESS fund Harmony Energy Income Trust (HEIT) has progressed the sale of its portfolio to the second round, a process which a source told us raises questions around listed funds’ role in the BESS industry.
‘Not all providers are equal’ and using different ones for the same project has not proved problematic when it comes to BESS project augmentation, an executive from investment manager Gresham House said.
We hear from Gresham House and optimisers Capalo AI and Flower on the BESS industry’s move away from merchant-only models towards more contracted revenues.
Octopus Energy’s head of flexibility discussed its tolling deal with Gresham House for nearly 1GWh of BESS projects, including how they will fit into its VPP portfolio and whether their energy market activity could change under its control.
Utility Octopus Energy will pay Gresham House Energy Storage Fund (GRID) a fixed fee to use half of its UK BESS portfolio, at a price which it said is ‘above the current merchant revenue stack’.
