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THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN DOES NOT CONSTITUTE OR FORM PART
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JURISDICTION.
24 April 2024
Gresham House Energy Storage
Fund plc
("GRID" or the
"Company")
BESS portfolio revenue
update
Following its recent trading update
on 18 April 2024, Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc (LSE:
GRID), the UK's largest fund investing in utility-scale battery
energy storage systems (BESS), is pleased to share a further
supplemental update on recent BESS portfolio revenue
performance.
After a challenging start to the
year for the BESS market, the Company has seen a meaningful
improvement in the revenues of its underlying BESS portfolio from
March 2024.
Month
|
BESS
portfolio revenue*
(unaudited and rounded to nearest £100/MW/yr)
|
Fully
operational BESS portfolio revenue**
(unaudited and rounded to nearest
£100/MW/yr)
|
January 2024
|
£40,000/MW/yr
|
£43,800/MW/yr
|
February 2024
|
£37,100/MW/yr
|
£39,500/MW/yr
|
March 2024
|
£47,400/MW/yr
|
£52,600/MW/yr
|
1 - 15 April 2024
|
£71,100/MW/yr
|
£77,900/MW/yr
|
* BESS portfolio revenue includes
all assets which were operational in the period. This includes
assets which were in construction, extended commissioning and
offline for augmentation works.
** Fully operational BESS portfolio
category excludes assets in construction, going through extended
commissioning or offline for duration increase works during the
period in review. The assets excluded are West Didsbury, Arbroath,
Enderby and Nevendon.
Portfolio revenues include Capacity
Market revenues and reflect an operational portfolio with a
weighted average duration of c.1.2 hours. The duration for the
operational portfolio is projected to increase to c.1.6 hours by
the end of 2024. Grendon, the portfolio's only operational 2-hour
project currently, has outperformed the other portfolio assets, as
well as other 2-hour projects in the market for which there is
publicly available information, on a £ per MW basis.
49% of the operational BESS
portfolio is not registered in the Balancing Mechanism (BM) today
and has outperformed the BM registered portion of the portfolio.
Performance of non-BM assets is not publicly available and so does
not appear on market "leaderboards". BM registered assets have
publicly available information disclosed relating to BM trades (but
not wholesale market trades) which is published by
Elexon.
The Manager believes that, in due
course, the revenue opportunity in the BM may be more attractive as
reductions in previously mentioned 'skip rates' come down as the
Electricity System Operator's (ESO) Balancing Programme is
concluded. As such, the Manager will continue to monitor
performance of its non-BM and BM registered assets and may register
more projects in the BM as value emerges.
Revenues since 11 March 2024 have
improved due to:
1) The launch of
Balancing Reserve (BR), a new reserve product which has launched
initially with a small volume of 400MW. Reserve requirements in
Great Britain are for several gigawatts (GW) every day and this
level will grow as renewable generation increases (as this drives
up the volatility of supply). As the ESO launches a new suite of
reserve products through 2024, including Quick Reserve (QR) in
summer 2024, we expect to see the Reserve volume that BESS can
compete for increase.
2) The ESO changing the '15-minute rule' for BESS, whereby the
maximum duration of any BESS trade in the BM was limited to 15
minutes, to a '30-minute rule'. This change was required to deliver
BR but is also leading to a greater use of BESS assets, although to
date it has not led to a meaningful reduction in skip
rates.
3) Improvements in
wholesale markets, driven largely by a return of negative prices.
This has led to increased trading spreads and the return of a
second cycle opportunity in most days. Flat daytime prices over the
winter mostly limited BESS assets to lower cycling. The rise of
solar generation in warmer months means negative prices in the
middle of the day, as well as overnight, creates two distinct
trading cycles, in turn leading to improved revenue opportunities.
Negative prices occur when renewable generation needs to be
curtailed. Through mid-April 2024, GB has experienced more than
three times the number of negative prices than at the same point in
any of the prior four years. The trend of increasing negative
prices is expected to continue as renewable penetration
increases.
In summary, merchant revenues are
inherently volatile, and the portfolio will experience periods of
higher and lower revenues. The Company is pleased to see the
recovery in trading opportunity since March 2024 and is encouraged
by the progress being made by the ESO through its Balancing
Programme to drive further utilisation of BESS assets. Whilst
recent revenue improvements are promising, overall revenues remain
below long-term third-party forecasts and the Company anticipates
further recovery as the ESO progresses through its Balancing
Programme in 2024 and 2025.
For further information, please
contact:
Gresham House New Energy
Ben Guest
James Bustin
|
+44 (0) 20 3837 6270
|
Jefferies International Limited
Stuart Klein
Gaudi Le Roux
Harry Randall
|
+44 (0) 20 7029 8000
|
KL
Communications
Charles Gorman
Charlotte Francis
Effie Aye-Maung-Hider
|
gh@kl-communications.com
+44 (0) 20 3882 6644
|
JTC
(UK) Limited as Company Secretary
Christopher Gibbons
|
GHEnergyStorageCoSec@jtcgroup.com
+44 (0) 20 7409 0181
|
About the Company and the Manager:
Gresham House Energy Storage Fund
plc seeks to provide investors with an attractive and sustainable
dividend over the long term by investing in a diversified portfolio
of utility-scale battery energy storage systems (known as BESS)
located in Great Britain and internationally. In addition, the
Company seeks to provide investors with the prospect of capital
growth through the re-investment of net cash generated in excess of
the target dividend in accordance with the Company's investment
policy.
The Company targets an unlevered Net
Asset Value total return of 8% per annum and a levered Net Asset
Value total return of 15% per annum, in each case calculated net of
the Company's costs and expenses.
Gresham House Asset Management Ltd
is the FCA authorised operating business of Gresham House Ltd, a
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 energy storage systems
(BESS)
Utility-scale battery energy storage
systems (BESS) 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.
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