Energy -storage specialist EKU Energy has protected £ 45 million in debt financing to finance the construction of a new storage system for battery energy (BESS) in the West Midlands.
The financial package comes from Natwest Bank and the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and will be used to build the Ocker Hill Bess, a 99 MW/198mWH Bess development between the cities of Dudley and Wednesday in the West Midlands.
The Ocker Hill Bess will be built close to the site of the former Ocker Hill Coal-Fired Power Station, which operated from 1902 to 1977 and was demolished in 1985. The development, the fourth energy storage project of EKU Energy in the UK, is expected to be put into use at the end of 2026.
The development will use 54 Tesla Megapack batteries and will be built by H&MV Engineering, which will serve as the balance of the plant contractor for the project. Once completed, Smarttertergy, a subsidiary of 100% owned by the Marubeni Corporation, will work as the tolls adaptor for the development under an agreement of ten years.
In addition, SMBC and Natwest Eku Energy have provided with a non-committed accordion facility of £ 100 million to finance the British projects of EKU Energy in the short term, including various Eku Energy has recently acquired as part of the recent acquisition of the Bluestone Energy BESS portfolio.
The newly acquired assets have a combined pipeline capacity of 1GW/2GWH and include a 98 MW/196MWH project in Leatherhead, Surrey; The 98 MW/196MWH Sturts Farm Project in Dorset; and two 240 MW projects in Ninfield, East Sussex and Rochester in Kent.
Elias Saba, Chief Technology Officer at Eku Energy, said that the Ocker Hill Bess makes the energy transition and recording of renewable energy possible. The CEO of Eku Energy, Daniel Burrows, agreed, and added that the growing portfolio of the company in the VK reflects the company “Dedication” to provide safe, secure and reliable energy storage solutions that will offer cost -effective clean energy “.
Mahul Raval, senior vice -president of Trade at Smartelsergy, said that the company was ‘pleased’ to work with Eku Energy in the Tolling Agreement for the Ocker Hill Bess, adding that the project ‘shows our dedication to EKU and the Bess Business Case they have built’.
The news follows a recent announcement from Eku Energy, in which the company revealed that it had signed a trade and optimization services with Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy, Statkraft. The deal surrounds EKU Energy’s Loudwater Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), a Bess development of 40 MW/55MWH that is currently under construction.
Statkraft will provide optimization and trade services for the development of Loudwater Bess if it is submitted on behalf of, which is expected to take place in mid-2025.
