Agilitas to Expand from Northeast US Base

  • Agilitas Energy has agreed to acquire a portfolio of standalone energy storage projects in development for around US$75 million from Gulf States Renewable Energy and GSR Energy.
  • They are identically designed and sized at 9.96MW/20.721MWh each, with BYD Energy as a battery supplier.

Agilitas Energy, a developer of distributed and smaller utility-scale solar PV and battery storage projects in the US, has entered the Texas ERCOT market. The company said yesterday that it has agreed to acquire a portfolio of standalone energy storage projects in development for around US$75 million from Gulf States Renewable Energy, a Texas-based subsidiary of California solar and battery storage development company GSR Energy.

Comprising six assets totalling 60MW output in the Greater Houston area of Texas, they will serve utility CenterPoint Energy, which serves residential customers in the region, charging with surplus energy at off-peak times for inputting to the grid when demand peaks and it is most needed. They are identically designed and sized at 9.96MW/20.721MWh each, with BYD Energy as a battery supplier.

It marks a geographical departure for Agilitas, which has to date focused on the Northeastern US, with projects that include Rhode Island’s first-ever utility-scale BESS, a 3MW/9MWh asset that came online last year. Other projects include community solar-plus-storage in Massachusetts that qualified for that state’s SMART incentive programme. Bilotta noted that in addition to expanding into Texas, Agilitas is also “planning to bolster our renewable portfolio to include sources beyond solar, partnering with other leading renewable developers to achieve these goals as necessary”.

It also marks something of a departure in the sense that its projects to date have focused on renewable energy markets in US states or grid operator regions that are policy-driven, e.g., feed-in tariff or net metering, with additional wholesale market participation and behind-the-meter benefits like peak shaving. In contrast, Texas’ ERCOT wholesale market is more of a merchant play.

Source: Energy Storage News

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