US-based energy company Aypa Power has acquired two standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Indiana, US, with 268MW of combined capacity.

The BESS projects included in the deal are Williams Power, a 150MW project located in Jefferson County, and the Fletcher Power project in Decatur County, which has 118MW of capacity.

The projects were bought from Blue Steel Power for an undisclosed sum.

Williams Power and Fletcher Power are both in late stages of development and Aypa has agreed to take over all development required to bring them online.

Blue Steel Power is a joint venture between Open Road Renewables and Eolian.

Aypa Power CEO Moe Hajabed said: “Working with the Open Road and Eolian teams on this transaction demonstrated the depth of expertise that they have in developing and siting high-quality projects.

“With anticipated shortfalls in capacity resources in MISO, developing and operating the Williams and Fletcher projects will be critical to efficiently improving grid resiliency.”

Once operational, the two BESS facilities are intended to provide resilience and capacity to the regional grid, which is operated by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO).

They are expected to create economic benefits in the form of construction, operations and maintenance jobs, as well as tax revenues for the local community.

Eolian CEO Aaron Zubaty said: “In 2018, the Open Road and Eolian teams anticipated the need to add flexible, dispatchable resources to MISO and began development of these sites, culminating in the successful receipt of conditional use permits in late 2022 that allows both sites to begin operations in the coming years to ensure that regional reliability is enhanced for all consumers and industries.”

Aypa Power currently has more than 15GW of capacity in development across North America.

The firm is a portfolio company of Blackstone, an investment management firm based in New York City.