EnSurance™

Revenue insurance to accelerate merchant energy storage financing

EnSurance™ enables efficient merchant storage financing by transferring revenue risk to investment-grade counterparties, empowering developers to bring large battery storage systems online faster and with greater returns. Ascend Analytics' proven valuation and dispatch capabilities enable insuring partners to underwrite, price, and absorb market and operational risk.

All-in-One Ecosystem for Merchant Risk

Ascend's EnSurance supports more than 10 GWh of storage development across the US by delivering minimum-realized revenues insurance.

$2B


Merchant revenue risk-taking capacity

10 GWh


Accelerated storage projects

Energy Project Financing at Reduced Risk

In highly volatile power markets across the country, viable energy storage projects are being delayed by the inability to manage merchant revenue risk. EnSurance maximizes project owner returns by enabling low-cost debt and equity to finance the project while preserving the owner's upside exposure.

Transferring Downside & Retaining Upside

EnSurance leverages Ascend's complete product ecosystem of Market Intelligence forecasts, probabilistic valuation, and operational capabilities to enable efficient transfer of merchant storage revenue risk. EnSurance protects the project's financial obligations - paying out when minimum revenues are not realized - while at the same time retaining the upside project equity exposure to earn lucrative returns.

Merchant Downside

Merchant downside exposure, as indicated by the blue curve, prohibits low-cost financing due

EnSurance delivers an executable revenue risk transfer offering, optimized for the project specifications and the owner's risk appetite. Ascend provides ongoing management of operational risk with energy bid optimization via SmartBidder.

Case Study: 1 GWh Energy Storage Portfolio

Ascend Analytics' client sought to derisk the recovery of he portfolio's $500M installed cost using an EnSurance revenue floor. Working with lenders and outside equity investors, EnSurance identified a five-year floor at the 10th percentile of the revenue distribution to be optimal given the client's risk appetite and capital allocation preferences.

Distribution of Merchant Revenues

In the above example, EnSurance provides 10th percentile revenue strike price for a 5-year term, which, combined with the monetization of ITCs, guarantees 70% of the sponsor equity's capital to be recovered.

The client compared debt terms structured upon the EnSurance floor with terms based upon (1) fully merchant cash flows, and (2) a five-year toll, per competitively solicited terms. The probabilistic underwriting of the EnSurnace floor secured higher earnings than did the tolling rate, enabling the project to secure greater leverage. Since the debt was structured upon cash flow insured by investment-grade insurers, lenders' rights to accelerate amortization through an upside sweep were removed by the insured floor.

EnSurance
Tolled
Merchant
Sponsor Leverage
75%
71%
63%
Lender Upside Sweep
0%
0%
50%

The client's retention of upside permits additional financing via a preferred equity investment that is recovered through a share of earnings excess of the EnSurance floor. This preferred equity investment enables a step-up in the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) cost basis for the facility, decreasing the net contribution of project owner equity.

EnSurance
Tolled
Merchant
Sponsor Leverage w/Pref + ITC Step-Up
82%
71%
63%
Lender Upside Sweep
0%
0%
50%

Ascend's PowerSIMM calculated the client's realized value from each financing framework across hundreds of simulated timeseries market conditions. The resulting distributions emphasized the value of the EnSurance floor in protecting against downside outcomes while preserving the client's exposure to upside profitability.

Insured minimum earnings enable the project sponsor to write a smaller equity check, while presered upside exposure enables the sponsor, instead of the risk-taker or lender, to realize a supernormal return on investment.

EnSurance Floor

The increased leverage permitted by the EnSurance floor enables the retained upside to yield 20yr IRRs of 40%in the p50 outcome, with Ascend ITC step-up.

Effective Risk Transfer for Clean Energy Transitions

EnSurance creates efficient risk transfer through forecasting merchant revenue exposure and distributing risk across broad pools of capital, harnessing the combined capability of Ascend Analytics' ecosystem of software and services.

chart depicting Ascend's unique suite of capabilities

Backed by Ascend Analytics' 20+ years of tested forecasting and operational efficacy, insurance carriers and institutional investors trust EnSurance to efficiently reduce market risk, thereby enabling faster renewable energy growth.

Related Product:

SmartBidder

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