Fengate Closes Partnership for Battery Energy Storage System Platform

Fengate has announced it has closed on a new development partnership with Alpha Omega Power (AOP) with the purpose of building a market-leading US battery energy storage system (BESS) development platform.

Fengate's new development partner, AOP, is led by Paul Choi. Most recently, Paul was the executive vice president of origination at Broad Reach Power where he built and led the origination team. Previously, he was the head of renewables at Swiss RE and a director at Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, and Enron.

Among commercial and industrial organizations, the concept of saving money using energy storage, predominantly in the form of large-scale batteries, is becoming more mainstream. Battery storage gives C&I facilities a practical and cost-effective way to manage energy. On its own, battery storage allows businesses to store energy when it's cheapest and use that stored energy at the most expensive times; when combined with solar, battery storage helps companies meet corporate social responsibility and resilience goals while also managing costs.

There is increasing demand for BESS projects due to the increasing supply of intermittent renewable energy projects and the retirement of thermal power projects. With a proven management team, AOP is focused on acquiring, developing, constructing, and operating standalone BESS projects.

"As the demand for, and reliance on, intermittent renewable energy projects increase, BESS projects provide essential firm renewable power when solar and wind projects are not operating," said Greg Calhoun, Managing Director, Infrastructure Investments. "We are excited to partner with AOP to build a top-tier BESS developer that enables even greater and more reliable use of renewable power across the United States."

Utility-scale energy storage is on a growth curve to exceed $188 billion by 2029, driven largely by the increasing use of solar and wind generation, and is considered a key component of new power system planning efforts in countries around the world, representing a major shift from 2018 when the technology was still largely considered too expensive or complex for integration into energy markets.

Fengate is managing this development partnership on behalf of its infrastructure investors, including an investment fund owned by the LiUNA Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada.