Powerhouse Ener Regulatory News (PHE)

POWERHOUSE ENERGY GROUP PLC - Loan Facility to Protos Project SPV

PR Newswire

London, May 11

Powerhouse Energy Group plc

("Powerhouse" or the "Company")

12th May 2021

Loan Facility to Protos Project SPV

Powerhouse Energy Group plc (AIM: PHE), the sustainable hydrogen company pioneering hydrogen production from waste plastic, is pleased to announce that the Company has agreed to enter into a loan agreement to provide up to £3.8 million to Protos Plastics to Hydrogen No. 1 Limited, the Peel NRE Special Purpose Vehicle (the “SPV”). The loan is to progress the development of the Protos plant, the first proposed commercial application of Powerhouse’s DMG waste plastic to hydrogen technology, which it is expected will be licensed to the Peel NRE SPV. Peel NRE is a group company of the Peel Group.

Under the agreement Powerhouse has agreed to provide a loan facility of up to £3.8 million. This facility is for the specific purpose of securing long lead time items and project design services in respect of the Protos project, prior to securing long-term debt funding arrangements to be facilitated via Peel NRE. The facility is available for 6 months and drawdown will be in agreement with the budgeted Protos development cash flow. It will be repaid following the final investment decision or on the second anniversary of the loan, whichever is earlier. The loan is set at Bank of England base rate plus 2% per annum and will accrue daily. Any drawn down amount is to be secured on all of the issued share capital of the SPV, its land lease, the design and any procured assets.

The loan follows the sanctioning of the project by the Powerhouse Board. It will supplement the existing Peel NRE project investment which is to be transferred into the SPV. The project will use the proceeds of the loan to commit to procurement of the long lead items including the Thermal Conversion Chamber, the syngas process module, the compression and power generation modules. The procurement packages have followed the Peel commercial review of the facility and the design has been refined to optimise the supply, mix and use of waste material feedstocks for the site in addition to the provision of options for hydrogen export. 

Completion of the Protos plant remains the Company’s top priority. The Board believes the provision of this loan will protect the project development schedule and facilitate the finalisation of the SPV agreements. 

Tim Yeo, Executive Chairman, said:

“Powerhouse is now putting its money where its mouth is. The joint Peel NRE/Powerhouse technical delivery team have done a fantastic job in aligning the chosen suppliers to meet the specification for DMG. 

“We are confident that this loan facility has the great benefit of protecting the delivery schedule for Protos. The plant is modular and the majority of our project fabrication activities are covered in these contracts.”

Myles Kitcher, Non-Executive Director of Powerhouse and director of Peel NRE, said:

“I would like to congratulate the team in aligning the design to meet our operational needs. The commitment made by Powerhouse supports the Peel NRE expenditure and will cover the project planned budget commitments with protections until all financial agreements are in place. Significant progress has been made across all aspects of the project since the beginning of the year, including site preparation, and we anticipate full construction to commence over the coming months.”

-ENDS-

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Notes for editors:

About Powerhouse Energy Group plc

Powerhouse, the sustainable hydrogen company, has developed a proprietary process technology - DMG® - which can utilise waste plastic, end-of-life-tyres, and other waste streams to efficiently and economically convert them into syngas from which valuable products such as chemical precursors, hydrogen, electricity and other industrial products may be derived. Powerhouse's technology is one of the world's first proven, distributed, modular, hydrogen from waste (HfW) process. 

The Powerhouse DMG® process can generate up to 2 tonnes of road-fuel quality hydrogen and more than 58MWh of exportable electricity per day. 

Powerhouse's process produces low levels of safe residues and requires a small operating footprint, making it suitable for deployment at enterprise and community level. As announced on 11th February 2020 under its Supplemental Agreement with Peel Environmental, Powerhouse will receive an annual license fee of GBP500,000 in respect of each project which is commissioned. 

Powerhouse is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM Market under the ticker: PHE and is incorporated in the United Kingdom. 

For more information see www.powerhouseenergy.net