Leamington based PeakGen helps drive UK to carbon neutral future

By Nicky Godding

7 October 2021

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A Midlands company has helped land an historic first in the drive to help the UK move towards a carbon neutral future.

PeakGen, a Leamington based specialist in generation, transmission and distribution energy networks, has become the first private sector company in the UK to win a major contract as part of a move to open up the energy market.

The firm has won a contract to supply power services to the National Grid Electricity System Operator in the Mersey region. It involves the supply and operation of a shunt reactor which allows the grid to operate more efficiently by absorbing unusable energy from the system and maintaining consistent voltage levels.

It is the first contract won under the Pathfinder programme which is designed to open up the market to a wider range of private companies to encourage innovation and competitive pricing.

PeakGen, which employs 18 staff, used law firm Wright Hassall to undertake the legal work on the lease of the land adjacent to the Frodsham 400kV substation.

Ian Graves, CEO of PeakGen, said: “There is a real drive to open up the energy networks and infrastructure market to more providers. This should result in innovation and cheaper solutions, and both those factors will be vital to bringing forward the future of a more affordable and sustainable energy supply.”

“We are delighted to have won a contract under the Mersey Pathfinder to deliver the solution for the Electricity System Operator. It really is a major milestone for PeakGen and we hope it puts us in a good position to compete for and win similar contracts that are coming through the Pathfinder programme across the UK.”

PeakGen pitched successfully against 14 other companies to win the contract, and the legal aspects were handled by Bhavika Patel, part of Wright Hassall’s Commercial Real Estate team.

She said: “This is not only a real achievement for Ian and his team but it is also a major milestone as the energy industry looks to open its markets to private companies. The matter was more complicated than we first anticipated due to the site being part of unregistered land and the fact that we were dealing with the form of lease being the first agreement of its type."

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.