Statera PPA agreement takes Statkraft’s third-party flex portfolio to over 2GW

Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable power generator, and a leading provider of market access and optimisation services has signed a significant Power Purchase Agreement with Statera Energy, the UK-based energy storage and flexible generation developer. 

In signing this PPA for Statera’s 300MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in Thurrock, Greater London, Statkraft’s contracted capacity in its third-party distributed flexible generation and battery storage optimisation portfolio now exceeds 2GW in Great Britain, cementing the company’s position within the industry.

Statera recently secured up to £300m of debt financing for its energy storage and flexible generation projects at Thurrock, with the first £144m phase of the financing allocated to deliver the 300MW (600MWh) BESS project. It will make a significant contribution to the UK’s flexible storage capacity and will be one of the largest in the UK and Europe once operational. Statkraft’s PPA provides market-leading optimisation for the project, along with an innovative revenue floor structure, in order to support the project’s financing.

Statkraft’s flexible generation optimisation and trading service, which was launched in 2018, has never lost an asset or a customer from its UK flex operational portfolio to another third-party optimiser, and enables returns for customers to be maximised. This milestone comes less than 18 months after Statkraft’s flex portfolio reached 1.5GW, meaning that the UK business is continuing to see rapid levels of growth, and now optimises around a quarter of third-party flex in the market. 

Statkraft’s London-based team are the leading long-term traders in energy transition trading in the UK, with over 4GW of long-term renewable PPAs and 2GW of flexible assets such as batteries and flexible generation under contract, almost all of which is third party. Recent innovative solutions for customers have included industry-firsts such as forward trades on battery assets and a Quality Factor Index Swap. 

Future ambitions include playing a big part in supporting green hydrogen projects in the UK, enabling customers to get their projects financed and fully optimised in the energy market.

Brian Lonn, Statkraft’s Head of UK Flexibility, said: “This is a significant deal, which has helped secure financing and market-leading optimisation for a key project, and builds on Statera Energy and Statkraft’s existing strategic partnership of over 1GW of operational or contracted capacity. We are delighted to expand our partnership with Statera, who have demonstrated time and again their ability to develop, construct, and operate some of the leading projects in the industry. 

“Reaching 2GW of third-party flex capacity marks a significant milestone for Statkraft’s UK markets business, as our portfolio continues to strengthen, and we’re committed to maintaining our role as an industry leader. Through adding more value from better optimisation and providing guarantees, we’re helping enable key energy transition projects, playing our part in helping the UK reach net zero and maintaining energy security.”

Tom Vernon, CEO of Statera Energy, said: “We are delighted to continue to work with Statkraft to grow our portfolio of assets. The long-term innovative risk management structures we have agreed with Statkraft have assisted in the financing of several projects in our pipeline and supported our growth. Our experience with Statkraft’s advanced optimisation capabilities and innovative hedging offerings provide confidence that these assets will maximise the revenue they capture from the market.  We look forward to expanding our collaboration in the coming years.”