Date
10/25/2022
PDF
Participating tenants will gain access to solar, storage and electrification initiatives on-site, enabling them to significantly reduce their energy bills, as well as a cheaper way to charge their EVs and adopt smart thermostats.
Flexible energy provider, PearlX Infrastructure LLC (PearlX), announces the launch of its unique multi-family Virtual Power Plant (VPP) model in California. Following the success of the company’s VPP multi-family initiative in Texas earlier this year, PearlX is now replicating the model at a much larger scale in California. Dubbed “Project Flexifornia”, Californian renters of all income levels in participating communities can now access clean, resilient energy, and enjoy significant savings on their energy bills via on-site solar PV, battery storage and electrification amenities.
Flexifornia expands on PearlX’s flagship multi-family VPP initiative in Texas, which was launched in January this year. This sophisticated innovation on past community solar models delivers economic and operational benefits to owners and tenants of all incomes. The model uses end-to-end clean energy and electrification capabilities on-site – from solar and battery storage, to EV charging and smart thermostats. Owners enjoy a cash yielding asset at their community at no cost to them, actualized through annual lease payments from PearlX. Renters enjoy access to lower cost clean energy (5-10% discount on energy bills based on today’s electricity prices, and expected to significantly increase as rates continue to rise nationwide), a backup power source to keep the lights on when the grid goes down, and an easy and affordable way to transition to electrified living.
PearlX’s Flexifornia model is available to owners in every investor-owned utility (IOU) territory in California (i.e. most of the state), with five residential communities comprised of 1400 rental units already in varying construction stages. Flexifornia kicked off in Q2 this year in two Southern California Edison (SCE) territories and three Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) areas. With a mission to increase energy access in the US, PearlX utilizes a first-of-its-kind “non-credit” based underwriting method, which allows tenants who live within Flexifornia properties – of any income level – to access the benefits of solar power, battery storage and electrification devices without the previous obligation to present an industry-defined adequate credit score.
Michael Huerta, PearlX co-founder and CEO, comments: “Multi-family remains the largest unaddressed real estate segment in the US for electrification and decarbonization. At 45% of the nation’s housing stock, single family renters have serious bargaining power. We are unlocking that power through participation from renters, including low-income communities, giving them what they want: energy choice, lower prices and protection from extreme weather and grid failures. We’ve seen this first-hand in Texas, and from the buy-in we’ve already had from utilities and landlords in California, you can expect to see a dramatic scale-up on what’s ever been done before.”
$70M financing to support rapid scale-up
Energy providers are undergoing enormous transformation in order to adapt and deploy sustainable energy projects at this pace and scale. As such, Project Flexifornia is being financed by a Series B round totaling up to $70M, taking PearlX’ post-investment valuation to $115 million. The round, considered one of the largest funding rounds at this stage in clean energy deployment, is led by Lombard Odier Asset Management (USA) Corp. (“Lombard Odier”), using funds under its management. These funds include the LOIM Sustainable Private Credit Strategy (the “Strategy”) managed by Peter Pulkkinen and Rhys Marsh, which was recently backed by the Environment Agency Pension Fund (UK).
PearlX is strategically positioned within the vast deployment potential that multi-family real estate assets represent, and to capitalize on the growing economic wedge between distributed (behind the meter) energy generation and incumbent, legacy, residential electricity rates. This view is shared by Lombard Odier who led the $70M Series B round, whose bespoke sustainability management process seeks to supply catalytic structured capital to providers of sustainable goods, services and real assets that advance climate transition. Lombard Odier’s commitment to the initiative will provide the institutional scale for PearlX to engage and deploy its suite of flexible clean energy assets within multi-family communities throughout the United States.
Adriana Becerra Cid, Sustainability Manager of Private Assets at Lombard Odier, concludes: “At Lombard Odier, we believe that there is no path to a net-zero climate-resilient future without a just climate transition that benefits disadvantaged communities. We are excited to partner with PearlX in their mission to mitigate climate change and social inequity by providing access to clean, reliable, and more affordable energy across the US.”
