Opus is pleased to have advised the shareholders of Levelise Limited on its sale to BU-UK Infrastructure Group, a leading independent provider of multi-utility networks in the UK, serving over 1 million homes, and owned by Canadian infrastructure investor Brookfield.

Levelise offers a home energy management system that controls high numbers of domestic solar and battery systems through a suite of advanced, proprietary, algorithmic software. Levelise’s technology platform coordinates the actions of these battery systems to provide ancillary services to the National Grid as well as to act in electricity wholesale markets, reducing their customers’ energy bills.

The acquisition by BU-UK will allow Levelise to scale up its technology offering and explore opportunities to develop multi asset smart systems for homeowners and housebuilders.

The transaction is another example of Opus’s leadership in the Energy Transition & Climate Change market where it has advised on several recent software deals including raising equity funds for Piclo, a flexibility services marketplace, and the sale of Irish energy management software firm Wattics.

For further information please contact: John McElroy, Stuart Schofield and Tom Rahman.

Opus is pleased to have advised Piclo on its Series B fundraise. The funding round was co-led by Future Energy Ventures and Clean Growth Fund, with follower investors comprising Green Angel Syndicate (existing investor) and new investors Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions, Sustainable Future Ventures and Japan Energy Fund.

Piclo Flex, the world’s largest flexibility marketplace, enables system operators to procure, dispatch and settle local flexibility services from flexibility service providers, such as EVs and batteries, to balance the grid during periods of constraint thus enabling smarter, more flexible and more sustainable energy networks. The flexibility solutions provided by Piclo’s marketplace platform will help deliver increased energy security at a lower cost and will play a crucial role more broadly in the decarbonisation of the energy system.

The funding round will enable Piclo to further strengthen its market-leading position in the UK and Europe and to grow its international presence in the US and APAC, as well as supporting the rapidly growing team and continued product development.

The transaction adds to the strong track record of Opus’ energy transition and climate change sector practice, and is Opus’ 5th energy software transaction in the last two years.

For further information please contact: Stuart Schofield, Thalia Ilsen Nunn and Daniel Barley.

Opus is delighted to have advised the shareholders of Future Biogas on its £28m sale to 3i Infrastructure plc (LSE: 3IN), a £3bn infrastructure investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange and managed by 3i Group plc.

Future Biogas is the largest producer of biomethane in the UK and a highly experienced developer and operator of AD plants. The company has developed 12 such plants and currently manages 11 across the UK for third party owners.  Future Biogas provides full-service capabilities including construction, ongoing compliance, and asset management. The plants convert a wide range of feedstocks into clean and renewable energy through a process of anaerobic digestion producing biogas which is further upgraded into biomethane and directly injected into the UK’s national gas network.

The acquisition will include additional growth capital to allow Future Biogas to build a substantial fleet of unsubsidised biogas plants with carbon capture and storage capability.

This represents another market leading transaction and a further example of Opus’ expertise relating to the energy transition. For further information please contact: John McElroy, Stuart Schofield and Dilesh Patel.

Ed joined Opus in November 2022 and is aligned with the Chemicals, Healthcare and Consumer and Retail teams.

Prior to joining Opus, Ed worked at KPMG London for 5 years, where he qualified as a chartered accountant. He most recently worked within the Valuations team developing financial models for transactions and providing independent business valuation opinions. He also worked at MARCOL Health – a dedicated Healthcare Private Equity investor – for a year prior to joining KPMG, investing growth capital into owner managed businesses in the UK and Europe.

Ed has a BSc degree in Maths and Physics, and an MSci in Economics, Accounting and Finance from the University of Bristol, and is a member of the ICAEW.

Opus is pleased to have advised Eelpower in connection with its new partnership with Renewable Power Capital, a pan-European renewable energy investment platform backed by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The partnership is structured as a joint venture (JV) focussed on acquiring, building, and operating utility-scale grid connected battery storage projects. The JV is targeting to build up to 1GW of storage, and already has a current pipeline of 240MW to be built in the short term.

This partnership is Eelpower’s third JV in two years. In January 2021, Eelpower entered a JV with SUSI Partners and in September 2021 it announced a JV with Next Energy Solar Fund which was expanded in September 2022 to £300m to build over 500MW of battery storage assets. Opus advised on all of these transactions.

This represents another market leading transaction and a further example of Opus’ expertise relating to the energy transition.

For further information please contact: John McElroy, Stuart Schofield, Michael Mizon and Dilesh Patel.

Opus is delighted to have advised the shareholders of Wattics on its sale to EnergyCAP, a portfolio company of Resurgens Technology Partners.

Wattics is an energy management analytics and monitoring platform that allows energy and sustainability professionals to manage, monitor, and analyse energy, commodities, and related data from a single dashboard. Wattics uses advanced software algorithms to analyse raw energy measurements and uncover anomalous energy usage in appliances, equipment or entire buildings, enabling real-time notifications and alerts to unusual behaviour and consumption trends. Wattics’ customers have consistently achieved savings greater than 20% in commercial/industrial buildings. The company is headquartered in Dublin.

EnergyCAP, headquartered in Pennsylvania, is a leading provider of Energy and Sustainability enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, empowering customers with full control and understanding of their energy and sustainability data to reduce their carbon footprint and drive savings.

This transaction extends Opus’ track record in energy software, in particular relating to energy efficiency in the built environment, following the sale of DEXMA in 2020.