Delays in the growth of Britain’s battery energy storage system (BESS) sector helped boost Gresham House Energy Storage Fund’s (GRID) portfolio performance, resulting in a “strong growth in earnings” in 2022.

In its financial earnings results ending 31 December 2022, London Stock Exchange-listed investment fund GRID disclosed that the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) for its underlying portfolio grew by 23.2% to £48.8 million (US$60.67 million).

It said that the strong performance was as a result of undersupply of BESS capacity in key frequency response services, which kept prices high. 

The company also experienced an increase in its net asset value (NAV) to 155.51p (US$1.93) per share – a 33.1% increase from the 31 December 2021 NAV valued at 116.86p per share.

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund reported that the greatest challenged faced by the construction activities within its investment portfolio were longer lead times and complications relating to obtaining grid connections for projects.

Despite the revenue increase in 2022, GRID noted that it is yet to experience potential cost decreases – in relation to insurance for example – as forecast.

“In 2022 GRID further built on its strong track record and delivered significant growth in earnings, operational capacity and NAV per share, while maintaining a fully covered dividend as projects became operational. Following GRID’s strong trajectory in 2022, the Company has set its ambitions higher going into 2023,” said John Leggate CBE, Chair of Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc.

“We are exceptionally well-positioned to capitalise on the exciting battery energy storage opportunities ahead of us in the UK and our targeted international markets.”

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