Important information

Following on its recent announcement of increased NAV, Gore Street, London's first listed energy storage fund, today announces several growth milestones on its portfolio. These include the doubling of the Company's operational assets to 210MW, accelerating construction and increased capacity on its Irish assets and securing a Revolving Credit Facility (the "RCF") with Santander Financial Services plc ("Santander").

Northern Ireland Now Operational

The Company's two Northern Ireland sites, Mullavilly and Drumkee (the "NI sites"), are now complete and generating revenue from today onwards. Despite COVID-19, the two 50MW projects were completed on budget and in time to capture the earliest possible window to start earning revenues under the Northern Ireland DS3 contracts. 

The two 50MW NI Assets are due to start operations under the lucrative DS3 contracts today. This additional 100MW across the two sites almost doubles Gore Street's operational portfolio, now comprising 210MW of operational capacity across 11 projects in Great Britain and Ireland. This is expected to more than double operational cash flow from the consolidated portfolio.

As previously guided on 17 November 2020, the DS3 contracts available for these two assets have attractive return profiles, likely to be considerably higher than the Company's 10% unlevered IRR target for portfolio assets. The Company's investment adviser understands that these are now the largest assets in operation in Northern Ireland. 

Republic of Ireland Capacity Increase and Construction Update

As previously announced, the Company's Porterstown project has recently successfully contracted Fluence for a fully wrapped construction of the battery system and has secured an option to expand its capacity from 30MW to 90MW. Following an update from Eirgrid, phase one (30MW) is now expected to be commissioned in Q1 2022 and phase two (60MW) will follow in due course.

In line with this expansion, the Company is pleased to report that Kilmannock, the Company's other ROI asset in construction, has an equally significant expansion proposal, from 30MW to a potential 90MW, which is currently going through an application process. Gore Street is engaging with stakeholders to secure a streamlined construction schedule with a definitive connection date to be confirmed.

Investment Pipeline

The Company's pipeline of new investment opportunities continues to grow and now amounts to over 1.3GW in attractive opportunities in the UK and Internationally. Therefore, as disclosed on 8 March 2021 the Company is considering - utilising its placing programme to capitalise on these opportunities and looks forward to further updating investors as appropriate.

Revolving Credit Facility

Additionally, Gore Street has secured a £15m revolving credit facility ("RCF") with Santander to support the continued growth of the Company. The RCF, which can be increased in line with portfolio growth, will enable Gore Street to finance the construction of existing projects and to purchase new grid scale battery storage projects from the Company's considerable market leading investment pipeline.

Alex O'Cinneide, CEO of Gore Street Capital, the Company's investment adviser commented:

"We are particularly pleased with the progress at our NI assets; these are now the largest of their kind operating on the Northern Irish grid and Gore Street is one of the few site owners to successfully secure lucrative DS3 contracts. This is recognised as one of the world's most advanced grid balancing contracts and we are delighted to have attained a leading role in the service through a competitive auction. The fact that Gore Street's NI assets are two of the few assets to have secured the 1 April 2021 gate clearly demonstrates Gore Street Capital's expertise in delivering for our shareholders in this rapidly maturing asset class, where proven experience is instrumental for optimising performance. With the additional operational cashflow from this 100MW, Gore Street reiterates its earnings expectation to more than double its expected consolidated operational cash flow.

The £15m facility RCF from Santander demonstrates a further recognition of the Company's continuing leadership in the asset class and the increasing maturity of the energy storage sector. It will support our growth ambitions and will be used to optimise the capital structure of the Company.

The increasingly attractive capacity auctions in which the Company can play a leading role, reflect the ongoing placement of investment in the sector as a key priority for national infrastructure. Gore Street is ideally positioned to capitalise on this ongoing critical energy transition and is delighted to be contributing towards Ireland's climate change goals and creating a low carbon economy.

Our pipeline is as attractive as it has ever been at this critical time for energy storage investment and we are keen to continue to execute accretive acquisitions for our shareholders in the near term."

Ioana Bozan, Director, Specialised & Project Finance, Santander, said:

"We are delighted to have closed this bespoke debt facility and cement our relationship with Gore Street. The RCF represents a landmark transaction, demonstrating Santander UK's capabilities in the net asset value (NAV) lending space and as a leading lender for battery storage projects, while enabling Gore Street to continue to grow the business and deliver on their strategy. It has been a pleasure for us to work with Gore Street's established, rigorous and ambitious management team to deliver a flexible funding solution and unlock growth opportunities in a key sector for Renewable Energy.

Santander's deal team and our specialist Energy and Sustainability Relationship banking team, led by Rakesh Ramana are looking forward to developing further the relationship with Gore Street on future projects and positively contributing to the wider climate change agenda."

The Legal Entity Identifier of the Company is 213800GPUNVGG81G4O21.

For further information:

Buchanan (Media enquiries)

JTC (UK) Limited, Company Secretary Tel: +44 (0) 20 7409 0181

Notes to Editors

About Gore Street Energy Storage Fund plc

Gore Street is London's first listed energy storage fund and seeks to provide Shareholders with a significant opportunity to invest in a diversified portfolio of utility scale energy storage projects. In addition to growth through exploiting its considerable pipeline, the Company aims to deliver consistent and robust dividend yield as income distributions to its Shareholders. 

The Company targets an annual dividend of 7.0% of NAV per Ordinary Share in each financial year, subject to a minimum target of 7.0 pence per Ordinary Share. Dividends are paid quarterly.

Disclaimer

This announcement has been issued by, and is the sole responsibility of, Gore Street Energy Storage Fund plc (the "Company").

This announcement is for information purposes only and is not intended to and does not constitute or form part of any offer or invitation to purchase or subscribe for, or any solicitation to purchase or subscribe for shares in any jurisdiction in which such an offer or solicitation is unlawful.

The information and opinions contained in this announcement are provided as at the date of the announcement and are subject to change without notice and no representation or warranty, express or implied, is or will be made in relation to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein.

The information in this announcement may include forward-looking statements, which are based on the current expectations, intentions and projections about future events and trends or other matters that are not historical facts and in certain cases can be identified by the use of terms such as "may", "will", "should", "could", "expect", "anticipate", "project", "estimate", "intend", "continue", "target", "believe" (or the negatives thereof) or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements, as well as those included in any related materials, are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions about the Company and other factors, including, among other things, the development of its business, trends in its industry, and future capital expenditures and acquisitions. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the events in the forward-looking statements may not occur and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.