SAN FRANCISCO, October 15, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Equilibrium Energy, a technology company building a next-generation clean power company, today announced its market entry into California; signing of new battery tolls with top tier developer Ormat; closing of a $39M Series B venture fundraising led by deep tech stalwart investor DCVC and including top tier institutional investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Valo Ventures; its market-leading battery management performance in Texas; and the hiring of industry veterans to join its executive ranks. The three-year old startup is combining the best of Silicon Valley technology with its deep experience in running competitive power companies to achieve its aim of accelerating society’s transition to clean energy.
Equilibrium has continued the growth of its battery tolling portfolio by adding two additional full offtake tolls with renewable energy developer Ormat. Equilibrium will take over operations of two 60 MW/120MWh Ormat projects in ERCOT in 2025.
Equilibrium also recently expanded into the California power market with its signing of an offtake toll for a 40MW/40MWh operating battery in July. Overall, Equilibrium now has 260MW / 380MWh of contracted battery tolls across ERCOT and CAISO. The company continues to build out its operational portfolio via its 6GW and growing battery tolling pipeline.
EQ started operating its first grid-scale battery in Texas in 2023. In only six months, EQ has now topped the industry in its ERCOT battery management performance for grid-scale 1-hour batteries. In 2024, Equilibrium has earned more revenue per MW than any other similarly sized grid-scale battery in Texas. Equilibrium’s leading performance leverages its unique combination of cutting edge software, ML techniques, grid fundamental modeling, and its innovative flywheel and culture. Equilibrium is beginning to work with other battery portfolio owners to leverage Equilibrium’s management capabilities in their portfolios.
“We designed Equilibrium to navigate an increasingly volatile electricity market and industry with the mission of putting a major dent in carbon emissions,” said Ryan Hanley, Founder and CEO of Equilibrium Energy. “We’ve only just started our journey, but we’ve been thrilled to work so closely with an amazing set of inventors, customers, and partners, each of which have impressive climate fighting ambitions of their own.”
Equilibrium also today announced a new $39M Series B venture funding round led by preeminent deep tech investor DCVC, which included financing from new investor Valo Ventures as well as existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures and a prominent university endowment. This new financing builds on the company’s $30M Series A financing led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures in 2022, and will support the continued build out of Equilibrium’s industry-leading power volatility management platform and growth of its commercial businesses.
“As the power industry continues to transition to clean energy in the face of climate change, we expect a new class of power companies will be necessary to support society’s march towards net zero,” said Rachel Slaybaugh, Partner at DCVC. “We are impressed with Equilibrium’s first principles approach to building such a next-generation power company, one designed from the ground up to fight climate change. We’re optimistic about their prospects to bend the climate curve, and excited about their impressive and growing commercial traction.”
“The most valuable power companies in the future will be those that deliver customers the lowest cost, most reliable and scalable carbon free energy,” said Scott Tierney, Managing Partner at Valo Ventures. “The trajectory of electricity demand growth on the grid, coupled by the exponential growth in renewable energy resources, is creating unprecedented volatility, risk, and opportunity. Equilibrium has built the most sophisticated technology platform to orchestrate network-wide optimization of grid-scale flexible resources to manage this volatility and enable corporate customers and power company partners to confidently accelerate their transition to low cost, carbon free energy.”
With its Series B funding, Equilibrium is excited to welcome new additions to its executive team. Kevin McEntee, former head of engineering at Netflix, joins as Head of Engineering. Jeffrey Woods, former Head of Strategy at JPMorgan Chase and CFO for Global Investment Banking, joins as Head of Finance and Operations. Jace Kohlmeier, former founder and head of Citadel’s high frequency trading desk, joins as Head of Trading. Caitlin Walsh, former Managing Director of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s Growth Equity team, joins as Head of Capital Markets.
Looking forward, Equilibrium’s focus is on supporting its battery developer and corporate partners’ efforts to tackle climate change by achieving and exceeding their deployment and sustainability goals.
About Equilibrium Energy
Equilibrium Energy is a technology company building a next-generation clean power company. Its mission is to accelerate society’s transition to climate and energy equilibriums. Founded in 2021, Equilibrium operates at the intersection of cutting-edge AI, power systems fundamentals, modern software, novel commercial structuring, and dynamic risk management across the power value chain. Equilibrium is being built by experts with decades of experience in energy, science, and software. Equilibrium thrives on supporting its partners’ efforts to tackle climate change. For more information, please visit www.equilibriumenergy.com.
About DCVC
DCVC is deep tech venture capital firm. For more than a dozen years, the firm has backed brilliant entrepreneurs using computational approaches to solve trillion-dollar problems in the real world across a broad set of industries, especially those that haven’t seen material progress in decades. With billions of dollars of assets under management, DCVC builds long-term relationships with the founders it backs. The firm has been with many of its companies from their very start — and through to their recognition by the public markets as category-defining businesses. For more information, please visit www.dcvc.com.
About Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Backed by many of the world’s top business leaders, BEV has raised more than $2 billion in committed capital to support cutting-edge companies that are leading the world to net-zero emissions. BEV is a purpose-built investment firm that is seeking to invest, launch and scale global companies that will eliminate GHG emissions throughout the economy as soon as possible. BEV seeks true breakthroughs and is committed to supporting these entrepreneurs and companies by bringing to bear a unique combination of technical, operational, market and policy expertise.
BEV is a part of Breakthrough Energy, a network of investment vehicles, philanthropic programs, policy advocacy and other activities committed to scaling the technologies we need to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Visit www.breakthroughenergy.org to learn more.
About Valo Ventures
Valo Ventures is a thesis-driven venture capital firm investing in climate solutions in North America and Europe. Our mission is investing for a brighter future, and we accomplish this by investing in digitization, decarbonization, and adaptation. Valo champions entrepreneurs applying innovative technologies to create long-term economic and environmental value. Learn more at www.valoventures.org.
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