Oxford company Habitat Energy bought by global investors

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, the global investment manager focused exclusively on renewables, storage and grid support infrastructure, has acquired Habitat Energy Limited, the Oxford based optimisation and trading platform for grid-scale battery storage. 

Habitat Energy’s team comprises data scientists, software engineers, battery storage experts and power market trading professionals. Habitat has developed advanced machine learning and algorithmic capabilities to optimize the strategic and financial value of battery storage assets within deregulated power markets, both stand-alone and co-located with renewables. Habitat has established itself as one of the top performing platforms amongst UK market players focusing on optimising flexible generation and storage. It has been ranked by independent market analysts as a top performing optimizer within the UK battery storage sector. 

Quinbrook plans to support Habitat to further develop its technology suite and advanced machine learning capabilities, continuing Habitat’s expansion into Australia and also the US, where initial focus will be on the ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) market in Texas followed by other US ISOs shortly thereafter. Habitat will be deployed to optimise battery storage assets within the Quinbrook portfolio, while continuing to offer its services independently to new and existing clients around the world.  

 The acquisition of Habitat is expected to significantly strengthen Quinbrook’s capabilities in flexible energy solutions and storage and strongly compliments Quinbrook’s existing Flexitricity and Velox Power platforms in the UK which specialize in demand side response, EV to grid optimization and reserve peaking capacity for National Grid. The imminent completion of the Rassau synchronous condenser in Wales will also solidify Quinbrook’s early move into grid support infrastructure enabling more variable and weather-dependent renewable generation capacity to be safely accommodated on the UK power grid. 

Recent instability in both UK and US power markets have highlighted how critical flexible capacity and storage are to supporting the energy transition, and Quinbrook believes this will only increase. Battery storage is poised for rapid expansion in coming years which must be carefully optimized, both operationally and financially.  

Andrew Luers, Co-founder and CEO of Habitat Energy said: “Habitat Energy was created to bring AI technology to power trading. It continues to be our belief that this combination of AI and human power trading expertise is essential to deliver the full potential of battery storage, and to provide the flexibility that reliable, renewables-based power systems require. We’re very proud of what our team has achieved to-date and in particular the contributions we have made to the UK power sector and its transition toward net zero. It’s with much excitement that we now join forces with Quinbrook which shares a genuine commitment to ESG impact and achieving net zero emissions targets. We look forward to working with the Quinbrook team as we expand the scope and reach of Habitat Energy’s activities and services to our clients and we are optimistic about the impact we will have together in this next phase of our company’s journey.” 

David Scaysbrook, Managing Partner at Quinbrook, added: "We believe that the Net Zero power systems of tomorrow are moving rapidly and inexorably to a place where renewable power assets and storage in all its forms will be managed and optimized with advanced algorithmic capabilities. The transactional velocity and complexity will quickly overwhelm the ability of current practices to cope with the scale of the transition now underway. We believe Habitat is truly ahead of the game in devising ‘state of the art’ methods at the leading edge of data science combined with the power markets know-how to maintain competitive edge. Habitat is a unique business with a stand-out team and technology platform that we plan to take well beyond battery storage. This is an important strategic move for Quinbrook and will further differentiate our capabilities as a specialist investor in next generation renewables"