Partners Group, one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry, acting on behalf of its clients, has agreed to acquire PowerTransitions, a utility-scale power developer in the US, from EnCap Investments. Partners Group plans to invest over USD 450 million of capital to accelerate the Company’s future growth.

PowerTransitions acquires and redevelops legacy or retiring thermal power assets with existing grid connections that can be enhanced or modified to add new generation through the co-location of solar and/or battery energy storage systems. The Company will acquire a 226 MW seed portfolio of natural gas plants at the same time as Partners Group’s investment and has also identified a 3 GW pipeline of thermal power assets in constrained markets across the US that are attractive for this strategy. PowerTransitions has strong infrastructure characteristics due to the stable cash flow generation of the seed portfolio and the planned evolution of its plants towards longer-term offtake contracts through the co-location of renewables and energy storage systems.

Sean Long, Chief Executive Officer, PowerTransitions, says: “Our strategy allows for the avoidance of network upgrade costs and long queues thus shortening development timelines and costs, easing Independent System Operators’ and Regional Transmission Organizations’ desire to enable new power generation to provide grid reliability. This strategy addresses major roadblocks hindering the matching of rising power demand in the US with clean, reliable, and economic power supply. We believe aged or retired thermal and industrial sites represent a large, underutilized pool of assets with significant value creation potential and we have identified a robust pipeline of actionable near-term M&A opportunities. We will leverage Partners Group’s significant experience in the power sector to capitalize on this opportunity.”

Ed Diffendal, Partner, Co-Head Infrastructure Americas, Partners Group, adds: “PowerTransitions will play a critical role in meeting power demand in the US by increasing grid capacity and improving reliability by optimizing underutilized points of interconnection. We have strong thematic conviction in the Company’s strategy of co-locating renewables with legacy power assets and plan to accelerate its growth through expanding its operating asset base while continuing to re-develop non-operating sites. We look forward to working with the experienced management team on our value creation plan.”

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