Accelerates Habitat’s US expansion
LONDON – 22 March 2022 – Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners (“Quinbrook”), a specialist global investment manager focused exclusively on renewables, storage and grid support infrastructure, is pleased to announce that portfolio company Habitat Energy Limited, a UK-based optimisation and trading platform for grid-scale battery storage, has appointed Mike Kirschner as US Managing Director.
Mike Kirschner brings over 20 years of experience spanning both the energy and technology sectors. Kirschner has held senior roles across risk management, commercial analysis and markets at companies such as GenOn, Dynergy and Vistra Corp. Kirschner’s focus on enterprise risk management systems, power trading and quantitative analysis coupled with his deep knowledge of US power markets and passion for the role of technology and innovation in the power sector makes him ideally suited to lead Habitat’s US expansion.
Kirschner will have overall leadership responsibility of Habitat’s rapidly growing team based in Austin Texas. His role covers trading team, route to market, software development, data science, business development and partnerships for Habitat’s battery storage and renewable optimisation platform.
Andrew Luers, Habitat Founder and CEO, said, “we are delighted to announce the appointment of Mike Kirschner to the position of Managing Director, Habitat Energy USA. We are due to go live with the optimisation of our first assets in ERCOT later in 2022, expanding our services to other ISOs in 2023, so Mike’s appointment couldn’t come at a better time.”
I am excited to be part of the Habitat Energy team. Habitat’s proprietary technology to optimize the profitability of a growing class of digital energy assets like batteries and other flexible assets will help accelerate the energy transition while improving system resilience, creating a win-win for generators and consumers.
Mike Kirschner
Habitat US Managing Director
David Scaysbrook, Quinbrook Managing Partner and Habitat Chairman, said, “now is the right time for Habitat to appoint a Managing Director to drive the rapid deployment of Habitat’s capability across US power markets. Mike’s enthusiasm and conviction in applying cutting edge digital tools to power markets is a perfect match for Quinbrook’s strategic vision for Habitat and the wider Quinbrook portfolio of solar plus storage assets.”
About Habitat Energy
Habitat Energy (https://www.habitat.energy) is a specialist in AI-enabled battery optimization and trading services. Habitat’s proprietary software allows for real-time trading, forecasting and revenue generation in the wholesale and ancillary service markets. Habitat is headquartered in Oxford UK, with offices in Australia and the US.
About Quinbrook
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners (http://www.quinbrook.com) is a specialist investment manager focused exclusively on renewables, storage and grid support infrastructure and operational asset management in the US, UK and Australia. Quinbrook is led and managed by a senior team of power industry professionals who have collectively invested c. USD 8.2 billion equity in energy infrastructure assets since the early 1990s, representing a total enterprise value of c. USD 28.7 billion or 19.5 GW of power supply capacity. Quinbrook has completed a diverse range of direct investments in both utility and distributed scale onshore wind and solar power, battery storage, reserve peaking capacity, biomass, fugitive methane recovery, hydro and flexible energy management solutions in the US, UK and Australia.
Media Contact:
Jennifer Pflieger
+1 (212) 446-1866