LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Gore Street Energy Storage Fund has awarded fixed-price engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts and long-term operations and maintenance contracts to NEC Energy Solutions, for 100MW of energy storage projects in Northern Ireland, it announced on Friday.
The London-listed firm said that, as it outlined in its acquisition announcement on 5 June, the two 50MW projects - at Drumkee in County Tyrone and Mullavilly in County Armagh - were among the largest in Ireland, and were expected to derive revenue from the new 'Delivering a Secure Sustainable Electricity System' (DS3) programme.

It said the projects, alongside the two 30MW projects owned by the company in the Republic of Ireland, would participate in the DS3 market, and would make a "significant contribution" to Ireland's climate change goals.

Under the EPC and operations and maintenance contracts, NEC Energy Solutions had committed to construct the projects at a fixed price by a specified completion date, to provide for performance and availability warranties and to operate the projects for up to 15 years.

The combination of fixed prices, warranties backed by liquidated damages, and guaranteed completion dates further de-risked the projects, the Gore Street board said.

As both projects progressed to operation, the investment manager said it believed the Northern Ireland assets would present an opportunity to increase the valuations of the projects.

In line with its previous guidance, the company said the projects were on track to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2021, as expected.

"We are pleased to deliver this significant positive news and major milestone in the development of our important Northern Irish assets on schedule," said Alex O'Cinneide, chief executive of the firm's investment manager, Gore Street Capital.

"We look forward to working with our partners NEC Energy Solutions again and collaborating on our first tranche of projects with the developer, Low Carbon.

"Gore Street continues to be the frontrunner in UK and International energy storage investment, our 6MW Boulby asset was the largest project of its kind in the UK at the time of energisation in 2017 and now our two 50MW Northern Irish assets are among the largest projects in Ireland and the UK, becoming part of the company's overall portfolio of 189MW."

O'Cinneide said the company had "one of the largest" portfolios of its kind, and also had a portfolio which was made up of the "newest, most technologically advanced", and thus the most cost effective, assets.

"We look forward to further updating shareholders on the progress of these important projects in due course."

At 1500 GMT, shares in Gore Street Energy Storage Fund were up 0.27% at 96.76p.

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE