(Alliance News) - Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC on Monday declared a quarterly dividend as it revealed a recovery from the hit to its investments from the Covid-19 outbreak.
Gresham House Energy Storage invests in utility-scale battery systems in the UK.
It said its share price total return for the three months from January 1 to the end of March was negative 13.6%, a decline attributed to the payment of a 1.0 pence dividend and a 14.4% drop in its share price to 92.0p at the end of March. However, it said this has started to recover since the end of March
Shares in Gresham House Energy Storage were up 0.4% on Tuesday morning in London at 102.89p each.
Net asset value total return was 1.7%, with NAV per share rising to 101.5 as at March 31.
The company declared a quarterly dividend of 1.75p per share.
Gresham House Energy Storage has a portfolio of nine operational energy storage systems with a total capacity of 174 megawatts. In addition, the fund has an exclusive pipeline for five additional projects for a total capacity of 192 megawatts.
Looking ahead, the company said that, while it trading has not been hurt by Covid-19, it expects "minor impacts" on the commissioning dates of its next two 50 megawatt projects at Thurcroft and Wickham.
Gresham House Energy Storage expressed continued confidence in its performance for 2020, adding that the ramp-up of its projects has doubled operational capacity to 174 megawatts, leading to a rise in revenue with is expected to continue in line with growth expectations to around 364 megawatts during the year.
"Despite headlines about falling energy demand and low power prices, we have not seen a discernible impact on revenues at this time. We are encouraged by the trends for 2020 which include more renewables in the generation mix. In our view, these mark the beginning of the end for the excessively large, gas-fired power plant fleet," Gresham House Energy Storage said.
"In addition, there is a growing demand from National Grid for frequency and other services. This is allowing battery storage to compete effectively in wider areas of the market which either didn't exist before or were previously the domain of large-scale fossil-fuelled generators," it said.
By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com
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Gresham House (GRID)