Infinis Energy Holdings Limited
The UK`s leading generator of low carbon powerfrom captured landfill and mineral methane. Infinis is one of the UK`s leading generators of renewable power. We operate a growing portfolio of landfill gas, onshore wind and hydro plants across the UK. In view of the challenging decarbonisation targets adopted by the UK government by 2020, we have a unique opportunity to play an active role in building out the UK renewable power generation capacity requirements over the coming decade. Infinis, in close cooperation with its shareholder Terra Firma, has the strategic vision, funding, operational and development capabilities to play a leading role in one of the most dynamic growth sectors while positively contributing to carbon abatement in communities across the UK.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Service provider
- Industry Type:
- Renewable Energy
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
- Year Founded:
- 2006
About Us
Market position
In the year to 31 March 2012 Infinis generated approximately 9% of the UK’s renewable power and was the third largest renewable generator in the UK.
As an embedded generator, we operate a large portfolio of geographically dispersed generating plants.
Our operating portfolio
We employ approximately 400 people across 143 operating sites with an aggregate generating capacity of 571MW, comprising:
- 123 landfill gas sites (343MW)
- 10 hydro sites (17MW)
- 10 onshore wind farms (211MW)
Our onshore wind development portfolio
We have a growing onshore wind development portfolio comprising 63MW in construction, 59MW consented, 78MW determined, 72MW in planning, 180MW in development and approximately 435MW at various feasibility stages. Infinis is also building a pipeline of hydro development projects, primarily in Wales and in Scotland.
Our Objectives
The power generation sector in the UK will be fundamentally re-shaped over the coming decade. The retirement of old coal and gas plants to meet stringent emissions regulations and the UK's EU obligation to generate at least 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 create new opportunities for a company with the right strategic vision, access to funding and ambition to become a leading player in an industry traditionally dominated by a handful of large utilities.
Infinis, with full strategic support from its owner Terra Firma, is keen to continue to expand its diversified portfolio of embedded renewable power generation activities, thereby reaping substantial synergies at operational, commercial and overhead level. As the second largest renewable electricity generator in the UK, we are passionate about having all our biogas, wind and hydro activities share the same operational excellence.
As we continue to expand our renewables footprint, we are committed to building strong partnerships with local communities and other stakeholders who stand to benefit from our investments and to ensuring the best working conditions for our employees. With these interests rightly balanced, a lot of hard work and a winning company culture, we are confident our drive will enable us to both create value for our shareholders and make a significant contribution towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.
Our Business
The Infinis group is the UK's leading independent generator of renewable power. It is also the largest generator in the UK landfill gas-to-electricity market.
We operate a growing portfolio of landfill gas (LFG), onshore wind and hydro plants across the UK. In the year to 31 March 2012 Infinis produced approximately 9% of the UK’s renewable power. Infinis also operates a 13MW peaking plant at its large Brogborough site.
We employ approximately 400 people across 143 operating sites with an aggregate generating capacity of 571MW, comprising:
- 123 LFG sites (343MW)
- 10 hydro sites (17MW)
- 10 onshore wind farms (211MW)
We also have a strong onshore wind development portfolio comprising 63MW in construction, 59MW consented, 78MW determined, 72MW in planning, 180MW in development and approximately 435MW at various feasibility stages. Additionally we are seeking to grow and develop our hydro assets.
The Infinis group is owned by Terra Firma, one of Europe's leading private equity firms.
We are well positioned to benefit from the rapid growth of the renewable energy market required to meet the challenging European 2020 target.
Our Responsibility
Our leadership in this area has been recognised by the Sunday Times in their annual Best Green Companies ranking since its inception in 2008. We have consistently been one of the best performers in the competition, coming within the top five Best Green Companies in each of the last three years. Click here to have a full overview of our environmental initiatives across our renewables portfolio, from recycling used engine lubricating oil (over 2.3 million litres/year) and plastic extraction pipes (over 70 tonnes/year) in our landfill gas business to using special acoustic filters to protect fish in our hydro power stations.
'Our most material source of waste is lubricating oil and ensuring its responsible disposal is our main focus. We use 2.3 million litres of it every year. Lubricating oil is required to ensure the performance and efficiency of our landfill gas engines. After use, we sell our lubricating oil on to a specialist organisation which, after processing, sells the majority as a lower grade lubricating oil. The rest is being used as a fuel. Over a number of years we have worked closely with oil suppliers to develop optimum oil blends for the harsh operating conditions within landfill gas engines due to landfill gas contaminants. As a result, our oil use efficiency has dramatically improved, along with its related environmental impact.'
Health And Safety
Our highest priority is ensuring the safety of our employees and anyone who may be affected by our activities. All our operational teams attend an induction Health & Safety course and a refresher course every two years. Our strong performance in this area has helped us achieve both the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Gold standard for the fourth year running and the British Safety Council's International Safety Award for a fifth year. With an annual RIDDOR (Reporting Injury Disease and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations) accident frequency rate of 0.35, we have met our target of beating the waste industry average by a large margin and the utilities average. We are very close to reaching the UK all-industries average. Our ultimate aim is zero RIDDOR incidents and we continue to work hard towards achieving and maintaining this stretching objective.
An important part of good health and safety management is listening to employees' views and feedback on health and safety in their everyday work. We measure this through our bi-annual employee survey. In 2010, 97% of employees participating in the survey responded that they believe that health and safety is taken seriously at Infinis. 98% also stated that they understand their responsibility with regards to health and safety, which reflects clear accountability mechanisms and training.
Positive Carbon Footprint
At Infinis, we are very proud to have a positive impact in the fight against climate change. By preventing large amounts of methane being released and using only small amounts of energy ourselves, the net greenhouse gas impact from our operations is therefore positive by approximately 11 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This is equivalent to the entire annual greenhouse gas emissions of a city the size of Birmingham.
Our positive carbon footprint is one of our most material contributions in the fight against global warming and through our company-wide environmental management framework, we are always striving to improve our performance in this area.
Our Approach
As a green energy business, Infinis operates a portfolio of 143 renewable generation sites across the UK and is in the process of developing many more, with a particular growth focus on onshore wind and hydro schemes.
To effectively operate existing plants and develop new sites, our approach relies on building strong partnerships with a variety of interested parties such as landowners, landfill operators, local communities, regulators and power offtakers (our customers).
The rapid growth of our generation activities in the past few years has been underpinned by a rigorous adherence to the following key principles:
- Relentless focus on operational excellence
- Develop high level of in-house commercial expertise
- Nurture a winning company culture in the organisation
- Achieve a strong development and acquisition track record
Relentless focus on operational excellence
As a power generator, Infinis has adopted an operational philosophy aimed at maximising the reliability of its biogas, onshore wind and hydro plants to deliver a reliable output to its commercial offtakers.
With landfill gas (LFG) plants, which provide electricity on a base load basis, this starts with the gas field monitoring and balancing processes which enable Infinis to maximise the extraction of LFG from approximately 12,000 gas wells under management while ensuring optimal compliance with environmental regulations. Infinis also runs the largest fleet of LFG engines in the world (approximately 350 gensets) which are subject to rigorous maintenance and overhaul procedures. Both gas field monitoring and engine servicing are predominantly carried out in-house and we provide extensive ongoing training to both gas field and engine technical teams who make up approximately 75% of our 400 employees. We closely track the progress of monthly gas conversion and engine performance KPIs which form the basis for continued improvement efforts of our field teams.
For onshore wind farms and hydro facilities, which are intermittent in nature, our operational focus is to keep the wind and hydro turbines optimally maintained to ensure availability levels above 97%.
Finally, the investment in our best in class 24/7 Logistics Centre at our headquarters in Northampton has enabled us to constantly monitor the environmental compliance and output performance of our LFG, onshore wind and hydro generating plants.
Develop in-house commercial expertise
Fluctuating wholesale power markets and the workings of the Renewables Obligation regime can make it quite challenging for small and medium-sized power generators to manage long-term revenue predictability.
Rather than signing up to rigid long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) capping up-and downside pricing risk as many other green electricity generators have historically done, Infinis has built an experienced in-house commercial team with good understanding of the pricing dynamics of the wholesale power markets.
This enables Infinis to contract and lock in prices on a much shorter-to-medium term merchant basis (6-24 months generally) commensurately benefiting when prices are on the increase. On the back of excellent plant reliability, we have also steadily negotiated lower balancing discounts with our licensed offtakers.
We also sign up to longer term PPAs for larger wind farm projects which require debt funding.