Gore Street Energy Storage Fund, an energy storage fund, announced that it would acquire a portfolio of eight energy storage assets in Texas from Perfect Power Solutions Texas, a portfolio company of SER Capital Partners, and an affiliate of Perfect Power.
The portfolio consists of eight 9.9 MW storage projects totaling 79.2 MW.
Three of the projects – each 2-hour duration / 20 MWh systems – have been operating since September 2021. The remaining five are expected to start operating within twelve months, delivering an expected total portfolio of 160 MWh.
The company will have 262 MW in operating assets and a total portfolio of 708 MW following the acquisition. This includes the acquisition of a 90% stake in a 22 MW/28 MWh operational energy storage asset in Cremzow, Germany, announced last week.
Texas has significantly increased the deployment of intermittent renewable energy while baseload thermal generation is being retired across the state. The assets are expected to help balance ERCOT’s grid by providing ancillary services, primarily through Response Reserve Service (RRS) market. In addition, the assets can participate in Day Ahead / Real-Time Trading to capture the market and system-wide volatility.
The three operational sites use LG Energy Solutions lithium-ion batteries. The modular design of the operational projects and unused land in the site may present future expansion opportunities to extend the assets in power and energy capacity.
The parties to the transaction have signed the purchase agreement, and the acquisition is expected to close within 30 days, subject to the satisfaction of lease, grid, and permitting conditions.
“The acquisition further underpins our push into international markets, where they exhibit the same favorable characteristics as in GB and Ireland, meeting our returns criteria. We have been looking at the European and US markets for a significant period to assess the best entry points. The electricity grids of individual states act as islands, in many ways like GB and Ireland, with their challenges and opportunities. This acquisition presents a new high-quality counterparty, ERCOT, for our services within a significant market managing the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texan customers,” commented Alex O’Cinneide, CEO at Gore Street Capital.
According to Mercom Capital Group’s 2021 Q4 and Annual Funding and M&A report for Storage, Grid & Efficiency, a total of 37 battery storage project M&A transactions were announced in 2021 compared to 24 in 2020. Three GW of battery storage projects were acquired in 2021 compared to 2.5 GW in 2020.
