National Grid Ventures Buys 35% Stake In Joulent For $1.75 Bln

LONDON (dpa-AFX) - National Grid Ventures, the commercial arm of British utility company National Grid plc (NNGF.DE), on Wednesday said it has agreed to invest $1.75 billion for a 35% stake in Joulent LLC, a developer of power solutions for growing demand from data centers and other energy-intensiv…

As part of the deal, National Grid Ventures will help fund Project Kilby, a 2.67-gigawatt power facility in West Texas being developed by Joulent and Chevron Corporation through a 50/50 joint venture. The project will supply electricity to a Microsoft-operated data center under a 20-year power purchase agreement and is expected to begin delivering power in 2028.

Joulent's solutions include co-located gas generation, battery storage, renewable energy integration and specialized grid connections aimed at accelerating power availability for large-load customers. The company also has a multi-gigawatt pipeline of future projects.

National Grid said the investment is separate from its existing five-year capital investment program of at least £70 billion through 2031 and will be funded using available balance sheet capacity. A final investment decision is expected in 2026.

'Through National Grid Ventures, we are gaining exposure to a major source of electricity demand growth with strong partners. It extends National Grid's core strengths of investing in long-duration infrastructure with predictable cash flows and attractive risk-adjusted returns,' said Zoë Yujnovich, Chief Executive of National Grid.

National Grid shares were down nearly 1% in pre-market trading on the NYSE after closing at $82.87 on Tuesday.