M&A: Plus Power shelves platform equity raise, exploring other alternatives

Plus Power has shelved efforts at a platform equity raise at present, said three sources familiar with the situation.

There were at least two parties who submitted binding bids for the storage developer, including infrastructure funds.

Plus Power’s ownership group rejected those overtures.

Scotia Capital had been hired in late 2023 to run the process.

Plus Power declined comment on the situation. Scotia did not return calls seeking comment.

At a time when certain states are just designing programs to incentivize standalone storage, Plus Power has been able to lock in financing and deliver projects with geographic diversity in the US.

Sources said Plus Power’s investors, including TWG, informed the finalists they were rejecting the binding bids and opting to fund future pipeline internally.

National footprint

The state of Massachusetts last Friday, July 19, installed emergency measures for its Clean Peak Energy Standard program, which among other things, helped ease standalone storage development.

Ahead of that, Plus Power closed project finance for its 150 MW/300 MWh Cranberry Point Energy Storage project this past June. Cranberry Point was amongst the first few standalone batteries ever to clear the Forward Capacity Auction in 2021 with ISO-New England and allow it to provide capacity to the ISO-NE market through 2031. This also was the first financing benefitting from Clean Peak, which incentivized the pairing of emissions-free generation with a seasonal peak demand.

Plus Power announced in November 2021 that it obtained project finance to build the 185 MW/565 MWh Kapolei Storage project with an offtake in place with Hawaiian Electric. The project would go COD in January 2024.

In October 2023, the company able to lock in USD 1.8bn in financing and tax equity split between two projects in Arizona and three in Texas.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.

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