Arlington Infrastructure Ltd has been successful in securing an initial £200m funding line to construct a significant portfolio of energy storage and gas peaking assets in the UK. This level of finance is the largest of its kind in the UK. Arlington has approached investment into the energy industry in a unique and disruptive way, embracing National Grid’s desire to move towards a more distributed and flexible network.
Arlington Infrastructure has access to over 1GW of assets which will be developed and constructed over the next 1-3 years, with sites ranging from 5-50MW. Arlington has extensive experience in finance raising, energy development, construction and asset management. Arlington intends to construct and own the entire portfolio of assets for the duration of their life, working with the most experienced supply-chain and advisors.
Matt Clare, Director of Arlington Infrastructure said “securing this level of funding has been a fantastic achievement for us, and for the UK energy sector. We are extremely pleased to be able to deploy so many assets in the UK to support the grid network”.
The investment is a significant step for Arlington but also for the distributed energy market in the UK, in particular the energy storage industry. As system volatility continues to increase, such assets are perfectly poised to take advantage of such peaks. The UK energy storage industry has been a challenging space for a number of years with battery CAPEX actually rising in the past 12 months due to increased demand worldwide. This highlights the need for the UK industry to embrace the concept of flexible merchant based assets, or risk being left behind.
Arlington is open to expanding its portfolio and is currently starting construction on a number of sites. Arlington recognises the importance of procuring the most suitable batteries and gas gensets, which reflect the manner in which they will be operated. As such Arlington has partnered with DNV GL to provide technical assistance on procuring and deploying the most suitable assets for the portfolio.
Dr Matthew Rowe, UK Energy Storage Manager at DNV GL commented on the funding, saying “Congratulations to Arlington on successfully securing the finance. Energy storage will play a huge role in energy systems across the globe, with a significant growth in installed energy storage capacity, around 50 TWh by 2050, according to DNV GL’s forecast.It is a pleasure to leverage our position as the global leader in technical energy storage advisory services, to support Arlington with the deployment of its assets in the UK.”.
