BW ESS secures loan for 331 MWh British battery

Swiss energy storage developer BW ESS has borrowed an undisclosed amount from Australian bank Westpac and Singaporean lender United Overseas Bank (UOB) to finance its 100 MW/331 MWh BESS near the English village of Bramley.

The deal for the Bramley project, which holds a seven-year tolling agreement from Shell Energy Europe, was described as the first project finance for a United Kingdom site secured by BW ESS.

The developers have claimed several firsts for the Bramley BESS, which has been operational since February after being commissioned in record time by Chinese inverter and energy storage company Sungrow.

It is the first European site to feature Sungrow’s PowerTitan 2.0, liquid-cooled batteries and went from energization to commercial operation in a European record time of just two weeks, according to the Chinese company, including a day and a half to pass grid operator ancillary-service testing.

Sungrow said the modular nature of its pre-assembled battery module and power conversion system (PCS) BESS containers enabled the rapid installation in a country where grid battery energization to commercial operation can take several months. The all-in-one alternating current to direct current block design features a 2.5 MW PCS using integrated string inverters, plus a 5 MWh battery, in each container.

Sungrow performs much of the necessary testing at its factory, further reducing deployment time.

Despite the rapid installation, the BESS became operational slightly behind schedule, with BW ESS having previously said it would be up and running before January.

The tolling agreement held by the developer, hailed as another first, for Great Britain, will see Shell pay BW ESS a fixed leasing fee for seven years, during which the tooler (Shell) will market the battery’s services on grid-strengthening ancillary services and electricity wholesale markets.

Westpac and UOB will each supply half of the finance secured by BW ESS, which tendered for provision of the loans. The deal is BW ESS’ second external financing closed in recent weeks, following a loan agreement with Nordea Bank to finance its 211 MWh Swedish BESS portfolio.  

According to BW ESS, the latest transaction follows “a highly competitive financing process reflecting the technical quality of the Bramley BESS project, the strength of its long-term revenue model, and the project’s strategic significance to the UK grid”.

“Bramley is a flagship asset in our growing UK portfolio. We were nonetheless encouraged by the exceptionally high level of interest the project generated from the lending community,” said Marc Weisser, CFO of BW ESS. “We couldn’t be happier with our final choice of lending partners; both UOB and Westpac have demonstrated a firm commitment to supporting the global rollout of strategically significant BESS projects and share our interest in unlocking the value of energy storage.” 

BW ESS said its United Kingdom battery development portfolio includes the under-construction 1.4 GWh Hams Hall site, in the English Midlands; the 700 MW Berkswell BESS, which is at “pre-construction” stage in the same region; and five other projects with a total battery capacity of around 1 GW. Outside of the UK, the company’s project pipeline spans Australia, Italy, Germany, and Sweden.