Lawyer Monthly Transaction Reports - Mergers & Acquisitions 119 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM JUN 2022 ABOUT THE DEAL The Freeths Clean Energy team has advised Centrica Business Solutions on its acquisition of project rights for the development of a 30MW twohour battery energy storage system (BESS) in Dyce, Aberdeenshire. This acquisition comprises part of Centrica Energy Assets’ plan to deliver 900MW of solar and BESS assets by 2026. The Dyce project is located near a grid connection point for North Sea offshore wind farms and as the UK transitions to net zero carbon emissions, this project is expected to play a crucial role in managing intermittency and network constraints. The Freeths teamwas led by director Charlotte Hugo (corporate) and comprised partners Emily Settle (corporate), Andrew Maxwell (competition) and Clare King (energy), in addition to associates Fatima Hammad (corporate) and Reece Ballett (energy) and legal assistant Ben Treasure (corporate). Scots law advice on the property, planning and grid aspects of the transaction was provided by Harper Macleod LLP (Omar Ali, Peter Ferguson, Winston Roberts and Lewis Hendry). “It was fantastic to work with the Centrica Business Solutions team on this key acquisition as they continue to grow Centrica’s battery storage portfolio,” said Charlotte Hugo in a statement. “Battery storage is critical to the UK’s journey to net zero and the Government’s target of achieving a green electricity grid by 2035.” Please tell us more about your team and their roles during the acquisition. Freeths Energy, Waste & Sustainability team is a cross-office multi-disciplinary team of over 50 lawyers with extensive experience and expertise in the clean energy market. We advise throughout the project lifecycle, from early-stage development and financing through construction to commissioning, ongoing operation, exit/refinancing and subsequent decommissioning. The team is truly passionate about working in this area. On this acquisition, we worked closely with Centrica’s in-house legal and specialist teams, including coordination of the Scots law advice from Harper Macleod to achieve successful completion. Were any significant challenges encountered during the transaction? How did you overcome them? We were able to work through issues identified in due diligence with Harper Macleod and Centrica’s technical team and to resolve these collaboratively with the seller and their advisors in the transaction documents as part of the completion process, minimising delays to the transaction timetable and ensuring the project could proceed as envisaged. Centrica and their advisers worked together to ensure that the practicalities of the project were used to keep the risks in context and find efficient solutions where required. Will the Freeths team be working on similar green energy projects in the coming months? Absolutely! We are delighted to be supporting the Centrica team on a number of further acquisitions as they continue to build the Centrica Energy Assets portfolio, and in total we are currently advising clients on over 2GW of UK battery storage projects at various stages of development. Lawyer Monthly had the pleasure to speak with Charlotte Hugo, Director at Freeths to give us some further insight into this transaction: March 2022 Freeths Energy Team Advises Centrica Business Solutions on Acquisition of Dyce Project Rights Acted as Legal Adviser to Centrica Business Solutions
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