We are pleased to announce that Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. increased its strategic investment in Yuso to 29% as part of a funding round. The participation will be held through its 100% owned subsidiary, Nippon Koei Energy Europe BV. Yuso will use the funds to grow its business, including the further development of its B2B energy platform and the launch of battery energy storage solutions. At the occasion of the fundraising, Yuso also adapted its corporate structure to that of a 'BV' in line with a new Belgian Code of Companies and Associations ('BCCA').
Yuso, a digital 'scale-up' in the electricity market
Yuso was established in 2012 and is active in the energy aggregation business. We bring together all players in today's electricity market: consumers, prosumers, producers, grid operators and power exchanges. Through our energy platform called “My Yuso”, we delivery energy services to more than 800 B2B sites with total installed capacity of 180MW.
Power producers such as small and medium-sized solar power generators that cannot participate efficiently in the power market themselves, can sell their electricity through Yuso at wholesale prices. SME customers that are too small to become an member of the power exchange by themselves procure electricity at the day-ahead hourly exchange prices through our platform. Aggregating flexibility and battery storage steering, we offer new revenue opportunities for our customers and provide balancing services to grid operators, thus enabling the integration of renewable energy into the electricity system in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The funds of Nippon Koei will enable Yuso to further develop the “My Yuso” platform. Over the next three years, we plan to add new services like battery storage and offer our platform to a broader range of customer segments and geographies.
Michel Verschuere and Bart Pycke, founders of Yuso. © Jimmy Kets.
"More and more SME prosumers and partner companies join the My Yuso platform. Over the past years, the electricity market changed radically and new opportunities for energy asset investment and smart grid application have emerged. At the same time, the market became increasing complex and volatile, sometimes to the frustration of forward looking companies that want to participate in a more direct way in the market. Our customers appreciate the simplicity, convenience and transparency offered by our digital platform and rely on our one-stop-shop solution to capture new revenues and lower their electricity bill in a smart way", says Bart Pycke, co-founder of Yuso.
"We see great opportunity to expand our platform and we are pleased to see Nippon Koei recognize our unique position and how we create value for our customers and our company. We look forward to collaborate with Nippon Koei on similar solutions for the Japanese market."
"We see battery energy storage as the missing link in making the energy markets transition to carbon neutrality. We have been working in close collaboration with Nippon Koei on the Ruien grid scale battery project to the satisfaction of all involved stakeholders", said Michel Verschuere, co-founder of Yuso. "We aim to operate a fleet of storage assets, ranging from the grid scale assets battery assets under development by NK and others to commercial-size batteries at sites already served by Yuso and other sites in partnership with hardware vendors with a solution directly integrated in the My Yuso Platform."
Nippon Koei, Japan's No. 1 international engineering consultants
Yuso and Nippon Koei started their collaboration in 2018 with the joint development of a battery energy storage project called RES (Ruien Energy Storage) in Belgium (25MW). This joint venture is all about developing a battery-based energy storage system in Ruien in East-Flanders, Belgium.
Yuso’s technology will play a vital role to commercialize the grid scale energy storage assets developed by Nippon Koei in the European energy and flexibility markets. In addition, Nippon Koei will second engineers to Yuso to transfer specific know-how and technology to the Japanese market. Nippon Koei plans to enter the Japanese supply/demand balancing market starting in 2021 and aims to contribute to the expansion of renewable energy and decarbonization in the electricity sector, both in Japan, in the EU and globally.
In short, this investment helps Nippon Koei to transfer energy technology know-how to Japan and helps Yuso to grow and innovate even further.
"The ability of Yuso to use new information technologies such as big data, machine learning and cloud computing to reduce transaction costs and to improve the quality of services in the energy business was an important reason for Nippon Koei to invest in Yuso", said Hiroyuki Akiyoshi, Representative Director and Vice President Managing Executive Officer of Nippon Koei.
"With this investment and the collaboration, Nippon Koei aims to strengthen its position within the European energy market. We plan to make full use of the knowledge we gain in the energy business in Europe as we prepare for the planned opening of the electricity sector and future energy transition in Japan."