Lack of finance is often the greatest barrier to making energy projects happen. When Powerstar wanted to help its customers invest in its innovative power resilience solutions so they could reduce operational costs and help them on the road to net zero, it sought specialist help. By partnering with Capitas Finance and taking advantage of its industry knowledge and expertise in order to offer customers tailored investment packages, it acted as a catalyst for the uptake of Powerstar’s smart energy technologies, giving them a competitive advantage.
Sheffield-based Powerstar is a leading provider of bespoke smart energy solutions including voltage regulation, energy storage, and smart transformers. Over the years, the company has helped hundreds of private and public sector organisations enhance their power resilience whilst reducing energy consumption, operational costs and carbon emissions through the delivery of its innovative technologies.
As with any new business initiative, financing for energy efficiency projects can be an obstacle, despite the attractive payback and strong return on investment. In order to grow its business, Powerstar sought to partner with Capitas in order to provide access to energy efficient finance so customers could implement smart energy solutions through a tailored, flexible, and transparent finance plan.
When seeking out an energy finance solutions partner, Powerstar wanted to work with an organisation who understood the nature of its projects and had the ability to finance all aspects of their offering, including technologies, professional services, and maintenance services.
They found that the Capitas team exactly matched what they were looking for through its customised and competitive programmes. Both companies also shared a strong belief in the power of energy efficiency to preserve the sustainability of the environment.
For Powerstar, the ability to offer customers a technical solution on their journey to net zero with a financing mechanism fully integrated and “built-in” is a unique selling point giving them a competitive advantage.
Two of Powerstar’s recent projects demonstrate the success of partnering with Capitas. In both cases, being able to offer a service-based agreement was key to both the sale and the financing.
Firstly, a UK manufacturer of high value components to the aerospace industry was suffering major disruption to its processes caused by power failures such as blackouts and brownouts, which incurred significant cost implications to its production.
As the customer’s processes rely on precision, speed, and reliability, Powerstar provided a bespoke 1MW VIRTUE energy storage solution, which was manufactured, fully tested, delivered, and installed to their precise specifications. The system was also installed with full uninterruptible power supply (UPS) capabilities should the company need to rely on stored energy when a power outage occurred. This would prevent interruptions to production, reducing downtime, production waste and help the company maintain its commitments to its own customers. In addition, it provided the customer with additional benefits such as reduced energy consumption, costs and carbon emissions, assisting the company in its continued sustainability efforts.
Another customer is a plastic products manufacturer, making a wide variety of consumer and commercial products. It wanted to ensure it could carry on its operations at its manufacturing site should there be any supply issues from the grid. By installing Powerstar VIRTUE, the client was able to avoid any cost implications should a power outage occur as operations would be able to continue as normal.
For both Powerstar customers, Capitas provided an off-balance sheet Energy Services Agreement (ESA) with zero upfront capital expenditure, benefitting each business with:
Robert Macklin, Chief Financial Officer at Powerstar, comments:
“We looked for a financial services partner with expertise, resources and a strong commitment to meeting customer needs. Capitas exhibit this specialist knowledge based on understanding Powerstar technology; the dynamics of the assets, their values, their working life, together with an understanding of the industries our customers operate in. Capitas explain all the options available to our customers and develop a packaged response to their needs. This enables us to help our customers improve power resilience, reduce their energy consumption and achieve their net zero goals via an innovative energy services agreement.”
Jeremy Hartill, Capitas Finance’s Chief Commercial Officer, comments:
“Our industry knowledge and expertise helps us deliver the outstanding service Powerstar and its customers deserve. In a rapidly changing market place, we’re committed to ensuring Powerstar has access to cutting-edge finance, helping them deliver new solutions that meet customer needs. We believe genuine partnerships drive long-term success, and by working with partners such as Powerstar, we can efficiently and sustainably expand a partner’s market share and profitability.”