Zenobē: Owner and operator of grid-scale batteries and electric fleet infrastructure

Overview

Zenobē was registered in London in October 2016 as Battery Energy Storage Solutions Limited and took its current name in March 2019, according to Companies House; the company dates its start to 2017. Its company page names two founder directors. The business works on two kinds of battery: stationary batteries on the electricity network, and the batteries inside electric buses and trucks.

The company is an owner and operator, not a battery manufacturer. It buys battery systems and inverters from suppliers such as Wärtsilä, SMA and Canadian Solar's e-STORAGE, finances and builds the projects, and keeps them on its balance sheet. Trading of the grid batteries' output is handled by partners under route-to-market or tolling contracts: EDF for Blackhillock and Kilmarnock South, and Drax for the future Coalburn site.

What sets Zenobē apart among UK battery owners is where its batteries connect and what they are paid for. Its large sites connect directly to the transmission network, and several hold long-term contracts with the system operator for network services, not only wholesale trading and balancing. Capenhurst held the first commercial reactive power contract for a battery, and in March 2025 Blackhillock became, in the company's words, the first transmission-connected battery in the world to deliver stability services, under NESO's Stability Pathfinder (Solar Power Portal). On the transport side it finances and runs fleet electrification for bus, coach, truck and school bus operators in the UK, continental Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

Offering

Zenobē sells its work in three lines, as set out on its home page.

Network infrastructure

Grid-scale batteries that Zenobē develops, finances, builds and operates in Great Britain. Its network infrastructure page lists the services they provide: ancillary services, balancing and wholesale trading; stability services (inertia, short circuit level and voltage management); reactive power; fast reserve; constraint management; and non-wire alternatives that reduce or defer network reinforcement. Revenue comes from system operator contracts and from trading through partners, not from selling the batteries.

Electric fleets

Fleet electrification as a service for operators of buses, coaches, trucks, vans and school buses. The electric fleets page describes finance, grid connection, depot design and build, power supply, charging, optimisation, operation and battery repurposing as parts of one contract, with operational guarantees and round-the-clock support. In some contracts Zenobē owns the vehicles and leases them to the operator, as in the Woolworths electric truck lease in Australia, where it keeps ownership and covers maintenance and upgrades. Hekaton is its software for real-time fleet management.

Portable power

Refurbished second-life bus batteries used as portable or static on-site power, for example for event paddocks.

Project development

Zenobē also develops battery projects from site to construction, and in July 2026 bought the German developer sdp energie to do the same in Germany. Zenobē does not publish prices; fleet contracts and grid services are priced per project.

Technology

Zenobē's technology choices are visible mainly through the suppliers it names in project announcements.

Battery systems and inverters

• Blackhillock (200 MW/400 MWh, rising to 300 MW/600 MWh): Wärtsilä Quantum energy storage with Wärtsilä's GEMS Digital Energy Platform, SMA grid-forming inverters, grid connection by SSEN (Zenobē).
• Kilmarnock South (300 MW/600 MWh): Wärtsilä Quantum systems and SMA inverters, balance of plant by Omexom (ESS News).
• Coalburn (200 MW/800 MWh): Canadian Solar e-STORAGE battery systems and Omexom balance of plant (Zenobē).

Grid-forming and stability services

Blackhillock and Kilmarnock South use grid-forming inverters to provide short circuit level and synthetic inertia, services that synchronous generators supply as a by-product. NESO ran these procurements as its Stability Pathfinder programme. ESS News reported in January 2026 that this was the first time NESO bought inertia from batteries, and that Zenobē won about 65% of the roughly 6.8 GVA.s of inertia procured, across Blackhillock, Kilmarnock South and Eccles. The Capenhurst battery near Chester connects at 275 kV and absorbs or injects reactive power to hold transmission voltages.

Control and trading

Day-to-day trading uses partner platforms: EDF's Powershift for Blackhillock, and the Kraken platform for control and dispatch at Kilmarnock South. Zenobē says its own optimisation specialists work alongside these platforms. It does not publish its control architecture, degradation data, safety design or the features of its Hekaton fleet software.

Security and management systems

Zenobē has announced that it was recommended for ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification; the announcement is undated and names neither the certification body nor the scope. No public material describes cyber security for remote access to its battery sites.

Customers

Zenobē's customers fall into two groups: the electricity system operator and networks that contract its batteries, and the transport operators and authorities whose fleets it electrifies.

Grid services

• NESO (formerly National Grid ESO): a reactive power contract for Capenhurst starting in April 2022, described as nine years in the award announcement and eight years when the battery went live, and Stability Pathfinder contracts for Blackhillock, Kilmarnock South and Eccles (ESS News). Zenobē estimates Blackhillock's consumer savings at about £172 million over 15 years, of which about £8 million comes from the stability contract and the rest from balancing and constraint management.
• Route-to-market partners: EDF trades Blackhillock and Kilmarnock South, and Drax will manage Coalburn under a toll.

Fleets

• National Express West Midlands: Zenobē supplied charging and vehicle availability for 459 electric buses; in August 2026 those contracts began to move to West Midlands Bus Company as the West Midlands Combined Authority takes buses into public ownership.
• Woolworths in Australia: up to 148 Foton electric trucks leased for grocery delivery, supported by up to AU$22 million from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and due to complete in 2027 (EV Infrastructure News).
• Other bus operators: the electric fleets page names Stagecoach, Oxford Bus, National Express, Ventura, Arriva and Cardiff Bus among its customers, and reports nearly 70 electric buses across Belgian operators.
• United States: school bus fleets for Copiague Public Schools, financing ten buses for about 4,500 students (electric fleets page), and an electric delivery van business in California bought from Revolv in March 2026.

Markets

Zenobē reported in July 2026 that it operates in 12 countries.

Great Britain

Great Britain is the home market for both businesses. Scotland holds most of its large batteries: Blackhillock between Inverness and Aberdeen, Kilmarnock South, Wishaw, the Eccles site in the Scottish Borders (400 MW/800 MWh, under construction) and Coalburn in South Lanarkshire, with operation due in 2028. Zenobē reports that 1.3 GW of its storage in Scotland is operating or under construction, part of a £1 billion investment in Scottish batteries and transport (Kilmarnock South announcement). In England it runs Capenhurst near Chester. It reports about 25% of the UK electric bus market.

Germany and continental Europe

The sdp energie acquisition gives Zenobē a 1.75 GW pipeline of transmission-connected battery projects across six German sites. Its fleet business runs nearly 70 electric buses for Belgian operators (electric fleets page), backed by a €325 million European fleet facility (Zenobē).

Australia and New Zealand

Zenobē runs bus depots in Melbourne, including a depot for more than 130 buses at Truganina with ComfortDelGro (Zenobē), and the Woolworths truck fleet. In June 2026 it closed an AU$400 million fleet financing platform for Australia and New Zealand (EV Infrastructure News).

North America

Electrek reports that the US business centred on electric school bus fleets before Zenobē bought Revolv's 13 California depots in March 2026; Zenobē also operates in Canada. The University at Buffalo took its first eight Zenobē-supported electric buses, according to the home page.

Company

Zenobē Energy Limited is a private company registered in London, number 10436249, with its registered office at Burdett House, Buckingham Street (Companies House). Its company page names London as global headquarters. In July 2026 it reported about 400 employees.

Ownership

Infrastructure investor Infracapital, part of M&G, first invested £150 million in 2020 and became majority shareholder. In September 2023 KKR agreed to invest about £600 million and Infracapital a further £270 million, making the two joint majority shareholders, while Tiger Infrastructure Partners, the first institutional investor, sold its stake (IPE Real Assets; Zenobē). JERA and TEPCO Power Grid stayed on as minority strategic shareholders. Zenobē's June 2026 financing announcement still names KKR and Infracapital as majority owners.

Funding

The company reports more than £3.2 billion raised in debt and equity since 2017. Most of it is project and asset debt, such as £101 million from five banks for Blackhillock’s first phase and a UK and Ireland electric bus facility that reached about £980 million in its third round in June 2026, with 22 lenders. A separate €325 million facility funds fleets in continental Europe.

Acquisitions

• March 2026: Revolv, a California electric fleet operator with 13 depots (Electrek).
• July 2026: sdp energie, a battery storage developer in Bavaria founded in 2022 (Zenobē).