PHE Powerhouse Energy Group Plc

Powerhouse Energy Group plc

("Powerhouse" or the "Company")

29 July 2021

AGM statement

Powerhouse Energy Group plc (AIM: PHE), the UK technology company commercialising hydrogen production from waste plastic, will be holding its Annual General Meeting ("AGM") today at 11.00 a.m. at the offices of Fladgate LLP, 16 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5DG.

Tim Yeo, Executive Chairman, will provide the following update at today's meeting:

“I wish to take this opportunity of bringing shareholders up to date with what we are doing at Powerhouse.

First and foremost we remain focused on the project that remains our top priority - building our first commercial scale plant at Protos. Success with this project will open a worldwide market for our clean technology.

This project is being undertaken by Protos Plastics to Hydrogen N0. 1 Limited, the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up for this purpose. Following discussions with Peel NRE about funding earlier this year Powerhouse agreed to provide the SPV with a short-term loan facility of £3.8 million which was announced on 12 May 2021.

This facility ensures that long-lead items of equipment will be available timeously to progress the plant. We have already committed to securing orders for some specialist materials so meaning that we can secure a short overall project delivery period from commencement to completion. The loan facility is also enabling early preparatory work to proceed on site.

Since announcing this facility we have continued to work very closely with Peel with the aim of reaching financial close on the SPV by 31 October 2021.

In addition, the appointment of Ian Crockford to run the SPV has greatly strengthened the management team working on the project. Ian is overseeing the procurement and risk management to ensure that there is a robust contracting position for this first of a kind (FOAK) project.

FOAK projects, are by their nature, subject to technology risk which can make it hard to forecast a completion date until an experienced contractor is committed. We are nearing the appointment of a contractor and are therefore confident that the steps we have taken in the last few months are consistent with a completion date during 2023. We will update shareholders regularly on anticipated milestone dates.

Turning to other subjects I am pleased that Peel is progressing land use planning matters for the second DMG® plant which will be built in Glasgow at the Rothesay Dock on the north bank of the River Clyde, not far from where COP26 will take place in November. The location of a hydrogen re-fuelling station at this site is a reminder of the potential for DMG® plants to play an important role in supplying clean transport fuels in the UK and abroad, thereby delivering environmental benefits in the form of lower CO2 emissions and improved air quality.

The search for our new CEO is progressing well with the help of Egon Zehnder. Myles Kitcher and I are starting to interview candidates next month. 

We continue to strengthen our management team. In September a new Business Development Executive will join us to help deal with the increasing number of inquiries we receive from different parts of the world.

We also continue to support Hydrogen Utopia International in their deployment of DMG® technology in Poland, Greece and Hungary.

The board is confident about the outlook for Powerhouse and we look forward to updating shareholders later this year when we publish our half year results at the end of September.”

Myles Kitcher, Managing Director Peel NRE, part of Peel L&P and Non-executive Director of Powerhouse, said: “We are in the final stages of securing the construction contracts and expect to announce financial close very soon. We have commenced the civil engineering works with significant progress in the delivery of the new site access and in site preparation.”

-ENDS-

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Notes to Editors:

About Powerhouse Energy Group plc

Powerhouse has developed a proprietary process technology - DMG® - which can utilise waste plastic, end-of-life-tyres, and other waste streams to efficiently and economically convert them into syngas from which valuable products such as chemical precursors, hydrogen, electricity and other industrial products may be derived. Powerhouse’s technology is one of the world's first proven, distributed, modular, hydrogen from waste (HfW) process.

The Powerhouse DMG® process can generate up to 2 tonnes of road-fuel quality hydrogen and more than 58MWh of exportable electricity per day.

Powerhouse’s process produces low levels of safe residues and requires a small operating footprint, making it suitable for deployment at enterprise and community level. As announced on 11th February 2020 under its Supplemental Agreement with Peel Environmental, Powerhouse will receive an annual license fee of £500,000 in respect of each project which is commissioned.

Powerhouse is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM Market under the ticker: PHE and is incorporated in the United Kingdom.

For more information see www.powerhouseenergy.co.uk