Renewable investment firm buys demand-side response pioneer Flexitricity

Demand-side response aggregator Flexitricity has been bought by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners – an investment manager specialising in renewable and low-carbon energy.

Flexitricity, which was founded in 2004 and become Britain’s first demand-side response aggregator when it began operating commercially in 2008, was acquired from the Swiss energy company Alpiq for an undisclosed sum.

The firm currently manages a 540MW portfolio of flexible energy assets from its control room in Edinburgh and earlier this year became the first company to begin trading an aggregated fleet in the balancing mechanism in the new role of virtual lead party.

Flexitricity founder Alastair Martin said: “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.”

London-based Quinbrook has offices and assets in the US, the UK and Australia. Its co-founder and managing director, Rory Quinlan, 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.”