Leamington firm wins 'historic first' contract to help the nation move towards a carbon neutral future

A Leamington firm has become the first in the UK to win a major contract as part of a move to open up the energy market and to help drive the nation towards a carbon neutral future.

PeakGen, a specialist in generation, transmission and distribution energy networks, has won a contract to supply power services to the National Grid Electricity System Operator in the Mersey region.

It involves the supply and operation of a shunt reactor which allows the grid to operate more efficiently by absorbing unusable energy from the system and maintaining consistent voltage levels.

PeakGen, which employs 18 staff, used law firm Wright Hassall to undertake the legal work on the lease of the land adjacent to the Frodsham 400kV substation.

Ian Graves, CEO of PeakGen, said: “There is a real drive to open up the energy networks and infrastructure market to more providers.

"This should result in innovation and cheaper solutions, and both those factors will be vital to bringing forward the future of a more affordable and sustainable energy supply.

“We are delighted to have won a contract under the Mersey Pathfinder to deliver the solution for the Electricity System Operator. It really is a major milestone for PeakGen and we hope it puts us in a good position to compete for and win similar contracts that are coming through the Pathfinder programme across the UK.”

“We work with Wright Hassall because we believe in using local suppliers and developing partnerships. To have a nationally-recognised law firm on our doorstep is very useful and it has been a mutually successful project with hopefully more to follow.”

PeakGen pitched successfully against 14 other companies to win the contract, and the legal aspects were handled by Bhavika Patel, part of Wright Hassall’s commercial real estate team.

She said: “This is not only a real achievement for Ian and his team but it is also a major milestone as the energy industry looks to open its markets to private companies.

"The matter was more complicated than we first anticipated due to the site being part of unregistered land and the fact that we were dealing with the form of lease being the first agreement of its type.

“It is always great to work with local businesses, but particularly fascinating when they are leaders in really interesting sectors – hopefully this is the first of many such deals.”