In June, Pantheon Infrastructure (PINT) added Terra-Gen, a US platform that pairs utility-scale wind and solar with battery storage, to its portfolio. The deal tells a story about where energy security is heading.
For most of the past 50 years, energy security meant one thing: could a country get hold of enough oil and gas at a price it could afford? That question hasn’t disappeared, but it has stopped being the only one that matters.
Energy security used to be framed as a question for governments and utilities. It is now a question the whole system has to answer, and that has created a much broader set of infrastructure assets for investors to back, not just the generation, but everything that makes it reliable.
The energy transition is reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels, but it is also creating a more complex electricity system. Geopolitical tensions have highlighted the risks of concentrated supply chains, while ageing networks, the electrification of transport and heating, and growing demand from areas such as data centres are adding further pressure.
The result is that energy security is becoming an infrastructure question as much as a generation one. For investors, the opportunity increasingly lies not just in producing more clean power, but in the assets and systems that allow energy networks to remain secure, flexible and reliable as they evolve.
Renewables are, paradoxically, part of the problem they are meant to solve. Wind and solar output swings quickly and does not reliably line up with demand. As a result, electricity systems need assets that can respond quickly, manage constraints and provide stability when renewable output is lower.
National Gas, another PINT holding, provides a clear illustration of this need: between 4-5 January 2026, gas-fired power generation jumped from around 2GW to 26GW as renewable output fell.
That swing demonstrates why flexible generation remains important, even as overall gas use declines. Rather than signalling a return to fossil fuels, it highlights that without flexible capacity sitting behind renewables, the system has no answer when the wind drops.
The blackouts across Spain and Portugal in April 2025 underlined a related point: energy security is not only about generating enough power, but also ensuring networks can withstand disruption and manage a more complex, increasingly decentralised system.
This shift is already changing where investment is needed. Meeting future electricity demand will require capital not only for renewable generation, but also for storage, networks and technologies that help balance supply and demand as conditions change. Secure and reliable power is a structural need that will require significant private capital.
The infrastructure supporting a more flexible system can take many forms. Terra-Gen, for example, develops and operates utility-scale wind and solar, paired with integrated battery storage assets in the United States.
Electricity generated during periods of high renewable output can be stored and exported later, allowing these assets to meet demand over a wider part of the day.
Storage also has an important role to play at the transmission level. Grid-connected batteries such as Zenobē’s can help network operators balance supply and demand, manage constraints and support grid stability. These services become increasingly valuable as conventional thermal power stations are retired and electricity systems become more reliant on intermittent renewable generation.
The evolution of revenue models is now also making the case for battery storage becoming a more established infrastructure investment proposition. For example, a proposed tolling agreement between Zenobē and Drax, the UK power generation and energy company, for its Coalburn battery project would see Drax pay for access to the asset’s capacity, rather than exposing Zenobē to volatile short-term power prices.
The same logic applies at the point of consumption. Fudura gives commercial and industrial customers the smart metering and data they need to see when they are using power at the most expensive, most constrained moments, plus behind-the-meter batteries to act on it. Businesses can also strengthen their position by understanding how and when they use electricity and managing demand more effectively.
None of this removes the risks. Construction, operational and regulatory risks do not disappear because a revenue model looks more contracted; they are simply distributed differently. Battery storage is still a relatively young infrastructure category, and policy on capacity markets and network charging can shift its economics quickly. But longer-term contracts like Zenobē’s tolling deal make these risks easier to underwrite and price.
Producing electricity was always going to be part of the answer to energy security, but it isn’t the whole answer. As grids age, demand keeps climbing and governments keep relearning the cost of relying on a handful of suppliers, the harder, less glamorous work of storing, balancing and managing that power is where the real advantage now sits.
Richard Sem, manager of the Pantheon Infrastructure trust. The views expressed above should not be taken as investment advice.