Habitat Energy, a leading global optimizer of battery storage and renewable energy assets using advanced AI powered algorithmic forecasting and trading, has signed an agreement with UBS Asset Management’s Real Estate & Private Markets business to optimize 730MW of battery storage assets in the ERCOT market in Texas.

The four standalone projects are scheduled to commence commercial operations from August to December of 2024, providing valuable flexibility to the ERCOT grid. Energy storage is a key enabler of the energy transition, increasing grid resilience, enabling renewable energy integration and providing local communities with greater access to clean, affordable energy.

The projects are part of UBS Asset Management’s innovative energy storage investment strategy, which forms part of its infrastructure business expansion to provide clients with sustainable investing solutions.

UBS Asset Management chose Habitat Energy to optimize this four-project ERCOT battery storage portfolio following a comprehensive review of optimization service providers in the market. Habitat’s EVOLVE optimization service is a fully integrated end-to-end solution combining AI-powered algorithmic forecasting and trading across all wholesale and ancillary markets with Level 4 QSE services, human trader oversight and risk management, and asset intelligence that manages degradation and outage risk.

The deal makes Habitat Energy one of the largest optimizers of battery storage in ERCOT with 1 gigawatt contracted, and brings the company’s global portfolio of assets under contract to more than 2 gigawatts.

Michael Kirschner, Managing Director of Habitat Energy USA said: “We’re delighted to announce this partnership with UBS Asset Management and look forward to demonstrating our market leading capabilities to optimize revenues for our partner. The choice of optimizer is important, with top-performing batteries in ERCOT earning more than double the revenue of their peers. Habitat brings a new and innovative optimization approach to the ERCOT market and we see this agreement with UBS as recognition of that.”

Ken-Ichi Hino, Senior Portfolio Manager, Energy Storage at UBS Asset Management said: “The partnership with Habitat Energy marks another important step in the execution of UBS Asset Management’s energy storage investment strategy. We look forward to working with the Habitat team to optimize the value of our assets.”

Habitat Energy is a portfolio company of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, a specialist investment manager focused exclusively on the infrastructure needed to drive the energy transition in the UK, US, and Australia.

About Habitat Energy

Habitat Energy is a leading global optimiser of battery storage and renewable energy assets. The company was founded in the UK in 2017 where it pioneered the transition from ancillary-only to merchant oriented business models for battery storage. Today, Habitat Energy has 2GW of contracted assets under management across Australia, the UK and the US with a team of over 90 people providing full service optimization capabilities for battery storage, renewables and co-located assets. www.habitat.energy

About UBS Asset Management

UBS Asset Management is a large-scale asset manager with a presence in 23 markets. It offers investment capabilities and investment styles across all major traditional and alternative asset classes to institutions, wholesale intermediaries and wealth management clients around the world. It is a leading fund house in Europe, the largest mutual fund manager in Switzerland, the second largest fund of hedge funds manager and one of the largest real estate investment managers in the world. www.ubs.com/realestate

About Quinbrook

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners (http://www.quinbrook.com) is a specialist investment manager focused exclusively on the infrastructure needed to drive the energy transition in the UK, US, and Australia. Quinbrook is led and managed by a senior team of power industry professionals who have collectively invested c.USD 8.2 billion equity in energy infrastructure assets since the early 1990s, representing a total enterprise value of c.USD 28.7 billion or 19.5 GW of power supply capacity. Quinbrook has completed a diverse range of direct investments in both utility and distributed scale onshore wind and solar power, battery storage, reserve peaking capacity, biomass, fugitive methane recovery, hydro and flexible energy management solutions in the UK, US, and Australia. Quinbrook is currently developing and constructing some of the largest renewables and storage infrastructure projects in the UK, US, and Australia.

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