Bank CIT will be the lead arranger of financing for Swell Energy’s pipeline of behind-the-meter commercial energy storage projects in California.

CIT, part of First Citizens Bank, is arranging the financing of the development of over 100 projects that Swell is delivering at commercial and industrial (C&I) sites across the state.

The projects benefit from California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) which provides incentives to support existing and new deployments of distributed energy resources (DERs), including energy storage. SGIP provides rebates to customers for DERs installed behind-the-meter (BTM).

Swell provides energy management solutions to aggregate fleets of DERs into virtual power plants (VPPs) that utility companies can use to help meet their peak demand or provide grid services, and it can also deploy the storage systems themselves.

The company did not clarify which specific project in California CIT was arranging financing for, or if it included all its projects in the state.

In October last year, Swell signed a contract to collaborate with California community choice aggregator (CCA) energy supplier Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) to deploy 45MWh of solar-paired BTM energy storage systems in Humboldt County.

It has also struck a deal with large utility Southern California Edison to aggregate DERs into a VPP and is working with the other big two as well, PG&E and SDG&E to enrol DER asset-owners into programs that allow them to receive compensation for providing power to the grid.

Suleman Khan, CEO of Swell Energy did give an idea of the types of businesses that fell under this CIT-funded project: “The ultra-light commercial sector represents a significant untapped opportunity for Swell to develop energy storage projects within. We appreciate CIT’s unique agility and expertise in arranging the financing to help move these innovative projects forward.”