Lux Nova appointed as key member of HNIP consortium

Lux Nova are a key member of the team managing delivery of what is currently the Government’s biggest single energy programme. We are appointed as gatekeeper to £320m of Government funds and given the role of encouraging and assessing applications for, and awarding and managing, grants and for low rate, long-term loans for heat network projects, from public and private sector applicants.

The objective of the HNIP programme is to help stimulate a sustainable market for investment into low carbon heat networks, leveraging in up to £1billion of private funds.  The consortium is being led by our new client, Triple Point Investment Management (TP). Together with Amberside Infrastructure, they lead on inward investment and fund management. We (Lux Nova) add to the consortium our extensive legal and commercial knowledge of heat network projects.  We’re working alongside other sector experts, AECOM (heat network design and costing) and BDO (heat business financial models), as well as Ecuity (stakeholder engagement) and Gemserve (Government energy programme operation). 

Our role involves legal input into applicant guidance, application assessment, funding agreements, management of finance CPs and grant/loan management, developing standardised industry documentation and third party investor due diligence. Key in BEIS’ choice was our offer of promoting best practice and new / more effective approaches to project development.

For more information, click here.

See also our press release here.

Western Power Distribution study into "virtual private wires"

Lux Nova provided legal and commercial input into Western Power Distribution’s study into opportunities and models for locally matched electricity networks.

Working together with an expert consortium brought together by our client, Open Utility Limited, we provided regulatory input into this study.  Our role was to explain the regulatory boundaries to lawful distribution and supply activity, in connection with renewable electricity generation balanced with local electricity consumption, as well as explaining barriers to extension of some of the concepts involved and the limiting factors that presented on “virtual private wire” models. Based on our market knowledge, we were also able to highlight where market opportunities would arise, helping to direct other aspects of the work undertaken by other members of the consortium.

 The study is important in dismissing one model of ‘virtual private wire’ as non-viable but also identifying the potential value in another model, based on locational DUoS charging.  This is feeds into a broader programme of activity we are involved in, with a number of clients and independently, to promote the wider system, environmental and societal benefits ‘local energy’ and consumer engagement.

To learn more, take a look at the study here.

West African PPA training

One of our pathfinder projects in developing markets, Lux Nova analysed the renewable energy support frameworks in the ECOWAS region of West Africa, taking learnings from identified gaps in the market to design and deliver 4 weeks of in-depth training on bankable renewable energy Power Purchase Agreements.

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This assignment was delivered as part of IRENA’s (the International Renewable Energy Agency), wide reaching programmes which are aiming to increase the uptake of renewable energy in developing markets by training Government and Utility officials in best practice.

The assignment saw Lux Nova lead a team of legal, commercial and financial consultants to undertake the analysis and subsequent in-country training, to relevant government departments and utility companies across the 15 ECOWAS countries. This took place in French (in Cote D’Ivoire) and English (in Ghana) during 4 weeks across May and July 2018 and was very well received by delegates. Following learnings from the training and feedback from delegates, we also set out recommendations for IRENA to take forward further capacity training within the region.

This was a great opportunity to help up-skill local capacity in the region, enabling the faster deployment of renewable energy and we hope to continue our work with IRENA to deliver the recommended next steps which include the analysis for inter-country trading of power, off-grid projects and more detailed procurement design.