Eku Energy acquires 2 GWh UK battery project portfolio

Eku Energy, jointly owned by Macquarie Group and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, announced it has purchased seven planned battery energy storage projects with a combined capacity of 1 GW/2 GWh from United Kingdom-headquartered developer Bluestone Energy.

The projects include a 98 MW / 196 MWh battery energy storage system near Surrey in southeast England, a 98 MW / 196 MWh plant near Dorset in the country’s southwest, and 240 MW projects in both East Sussex and Kent.

Eku Chief Executive Officer Daniel Burrows said the acquisition signifies the company’s confidence in the UK clean energy market.

“The acquisition of Bluestone Energy’s battery portfolio in the United Kingdom is consistent with our approach in creating utility-scale energy storage projects for the long term,” he said.

The transaction comes almost three years after Eku part-owner Macquarie Asset Management established a joint development agreement with Bluestone that allowed the companies to jointly identify and progress up to 2 GW of UK battery storage projects. Eku’s construction and operations teams will now take the projects through to delivery, further expanding the company’s footprint in the country.

Eku’s existing UK projects include the operational 40 MW /40 MWh Maldon BESS and two projects currently under construction, including the 28 MW /56 MWh Basildon BESS and 40 MW/ 55 MWh Loudwater BESS.

Its Australian projects include the operational 150 MW / 150 MWh Hazelwood battery in Victoria and the 200 MW / 400 MWh Rangebank battery that it built on the outskirts of Melbourne in partnership international energy giant Shell. It is also building the 250 MW / 500 MWh Williamsdale battery in the Australian Capital Territory. Other projects in its pipeline are the 300 MW / 1,200 MWh Tramway Road battery in Victoria and 100 MW / 800 MWh Griffith project in New South Wales.

It also has projects in Japan and Italy.

“Eku Energy’s development portfolio of approximately 50 projects globally enables us to work with our customers to provide innovative risk management products and to secure long term contracted revenue for our BESS portfolio,” Burrows said.

The Bluestone acquisition is expected to be finalised in the first half of this year. No financial detail has been disclosed for the deal.