Flexitricity Limited, Britain’s first, most diverse and most innovative demand response company, has been acquired by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners from Swiss multinational Alpiq AG.
Quinbrook develops and operates lower carbon and renewable energy infrastructure in the US, UK and Australia. Quinbrook is led and managed by a senior team of power industry professionals who have collectively invested over U.S.$8 billion of equity in energy infrastructure assets since the early 1990’s, representing a total enterprise value of U.S.$28.7 billion or 19.5GW of power supply capacity.
Flexitricity is the pioneer of customer-side flexibility in the GB electricity market, with over 12 years of operational experience and 540MW of flexible capacity under management from its 24-hour control room in Edinburgh. Founded in 2004 and commercialised in 2008, Flexitricity was the first open-market demand response aggregator in Britain, the first company of its type to enter the GB Capacity Market, and the first electricity supplier to bring business energy customers into the Balancing Mechanism.
Rory Quinlan, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Quinbrook said “Flexitricity is a perfect fit to help us pursue our ambitious growth plans for the UK energy market. The team has demonstrated innovative capability and will be a force in shaping the market landscape from here with Quinbrook’s backing. We see great scope to expand their business model into a full menu of both asset based and technology enabled solutions for leading UK energy consumers. Quinbrook’s existing investments in battery storage, Virtual Power Plants and Community Energy Networks in Australia and the US, will offer valuable opportunities for cross border co-operation and knowledge sharing that will deliver real competitive advantage.”
Alastair Martin, founder of Flexitricity, said “this marks the start of a hugely exciting new phase of growth and development for Flexitricity. Everyone in the company is delighted to be joining the Quinbrook family at this moment of transition in the GB energy scene. The UK’s net zero carbon legal obligation, combined with National Grid ESO’s projections for transformation across electricity, heat and transport, put Flexitricity’s capabilities and technology at the centre of a clean, secure, affordable and equitable energy system.
“The last few years have been our most successful to date and we’ve seen dramatic growth in our industry. We now manage a virtual power plant of 540MW of fully flexible assets and as part of the Quinbrook portfolio we are confident we will break the 1GW threshold over the next couple of years. This investment by Quinbrook underlines the huge potential in the flexibility industry and its central role in helping the UK achieve net zero.”
Simon Heyes, CEO of Flexitricity, said “Flexitricity will continue to operate as an independent portfolio company, managed by Quinbrook. They are committed to supporting the full potential of Flexitricity’s existing customer base and providing the capital to grow a substantial portfolio of behind the meter assets that cover the full spectrum of a holistic service offering that has few equals in the GB market.”
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