Bristol-headquartered law firms TLT and Burges Salmon have acted on a multi-million pound debt funding for a London-based battery storage firm.
Burges Salmon’s energy team advised Zenobē Energy on the £25m limited recourse debt from Santander UK, while TLT advised the bank, a long-standing client. 
Zenobē Energy is one of the UK’s first battery storage companies to successfully raise limited recourse debt financing for projects that trade on a predominantly merchant basis.
Zenobē will use the investment to finance the construction and purchase of additional battery storage projects, invest in behind-the-meter services to improve power supply resilience and reduce energy costs for commercial and industrial customers, as well as providing services to the fleet vehicle sector including the design, operation and financing of batteries and associated charging infrastructure.
Gary Roscoe, Emily Huish and Becky Panton of TLT’s banking and finance team advised Santander on the debt finance terms and structure while head of clean energy Maria Connolly and legal director Debbie Reynolds provided due diligence in respect of property and planning matters.
Santander specialised & project finance team director Mark Cumbo said: “We are delighted to be working with Zenobē and TLT on such a major transaction in this sector. TLT’s deep understanding of the clean energy sector and diligent approach ensured a smooth process for everyone involved. 
“Battery storage represents a fantastic opportunity for the UK energy market, and we’re pleased to be playing a role in the provision of clean energy technologies.”
Gary Roscoe, pictured right, a partner at TLT, added that energy storage was becoming an increasingly attractive proposition for equity investors and debt funders, given its significant role in the energy system.
“Santander have taken an innovative approach to the traditional project finance structure to offer debt funding for this project, and we expect to see increasing interest in investment opportunities of this kind over the coming year,” he said.
The Burges Salmon team advising Zenobē Energy was led by partner Nathan Curtis and senior associates Alison Logan (both (banking), and Daniel Ballard (projects), with partner Euan Bremner and solicitor Shalini Jagmohan (real estate).
The energy team advised Zenobē Energy at the beginning of this year to help it raise a facility of up to £35m of equity from Japanese power giants JERA and TEPCO Power Grid.
Zenobē Energy founder director Nicholas Beatty said: “The Burges Salmon team, alongside our other advisers, played a vital role in supporting Zenobē Energy with its refinancing. 
“Throughout the transaction the team provided us with insightful and valuable legal advice. This ground-breaking transaction reinforces Zenobē Energy’s reputation as an innovator in the energy storage market.
“The debt raised will be crucial in allowing us to achieve our growth ambitions, both within our IFM (in front of the meter) business and fast-developing bus EV (electric vehicle) fleet business as well as elsewhere in the group.”
Nathan Curtis, pictured right, added: “We are delighted to have advised Zenobē on this latest, important, phase of their growth, having worked alongside them since the very early days. The battery storage sector has already shown it is resilient to market changes and it is a crucial part of any realistic net zero scenario.”
Zenobē Energy has 73MW of operational grid-scale battery capacity and has been at the forefront of developing software to optimise the use of batteries, for instance, by developing software to dispatch fast reserve services to the National Grid, which can deliver over 50MW of reserve power in less than five seconds.
