Investment managers AIMCo and Railpen acquire Constantine Energy Storage

Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) and investment manager Railpen have jointly acquired a 94% stake in UK battery storage company, Constantine Energy Storage (CES).

CES develops grid-scale batteries, and is planning to invest more than £400 million to build out a pipeline of projects in the UK.

These projects are currently under development by Constantine Group subsidiary Pelagic Energy Developments.

“Constantine Group has a long track record of developing and managing renewable energy platforms,” said Graham Peck, investment director at Constantine.

“During this time we have seen increasing deployment of renewable energy projects creating a large market opportunity and inherent infrastructure demand for energy storage. Through our subsidiary Pelagic Energy, CES has a robust project pipeline of large and well located battery projects, which are deliverable in the near term, and thus provide a secure pipeline of best-in-class assets.”

Constantine Energy Storage is being headed up by Mike Ryan as commercial director, along with Louis Burford – previously of Centrica – as operations director and Phillip Pugh – previously of National Grid – as project director.

Ryan has previously worked at Habitat Energy, Anesco and National Grid ESO amongst others. Solar Power Portal’s sister site Current± spoke to him as part of a webinar on Dynamic Containment and battery energy strorage revenues last year.

Railpen has over £37 billion assets under management on behalf of several pension schemes.

AIMCo meanwhile, had $168.3 billion assets under management as of 31 December 2021. The institutional investment manager was set up in 2008 and operates at arms-length from the Government of Alberta, investing globally on behalf of 32 pension, endowment and government funds.

“The acquisition of CES is an ideal fit for our growing global portfolio of high-quality infrastructure assets,” said Ben Hawkins, head of Infrastructure, Renewables and Sustainable Investing at AIMCo.

“Grid-scale batteries are a critical enabler of the UK energy transition, and the country’s net-zero ambitions. We look forward to leveraging our deep asset expertise, working closely with the management team to build and grow this business that will support Britain’s energy needs and transition over the long term.”