Joulz is a leading owner and provider of essential energy infrastructure equipment and services in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. 

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Overview

Joulz serves approximately 21,000 industrial, commercial, and public sector clients with its solutions, that encompass realisation, maintenance, management, and leasing of energy infrastructure equipment.

Joulz’ service offering includes mid-voltage infrastructure (owning and leasing transformers, switchgear and cables under long-term contracts), storage (owning and leasing large scale battery storage systems under mid- to long-term contracts), solar (large-scale installations under operational lease or with government-subsidized PPAs), metering (owning and leasing 50,000 electricity and gas meters under mid-term contracts) and EV charging (AC and DC charge points in mid-term exploitation, rental or CPO contracts).

Additionally, it provides integrated solutions to address energy transition challenges such as grid congestion.

Why we invested

3i Infrastructure was attracted by Joulz's strong established asset base as well as is potential for growth. Joulz is set to benefit from the Dutch government’s commitment to decarbonise the economy (the ‘Energy Transition’), which is expected to increase electricity consumption and demand for Joulz’s equipment and services. 3i Infrastructure has relevant experience from investing in the Netherlands and previous investments in the electricity and leasing sectors. 

Recent developments

Joulz performed in line with expectations during the year, supported by long-term contracted revenues and the completion of new installations. Demand for its behind-the-meter (‘BtM’) integrated energy solutions remains strong, driven by customers seeking to decarbonise their operations and to address constraints arising from electricity grid congestion.

In Q1 2026, Joulz completed the acquisitions of the Italian and Dutch divisions of Centrica Business Solutions (‘CBS’) and Engie’s Belgian commercial and industrial (‘C&I’) solar rooftop business.

CBS designs, installs, finances and maintains BtM energy infrastructure for C&I customers under long-term contracts, including combined heat and power plants, solar rooftop and microgrids. The business manages c.280MW of energy assets. The acquisition will broaden Joulz’s solution offering to include heat, for which it is seeing increasing demand.

Engie’s Belgian C&I solar business is the largest C&I-focused solar rooftop portfolio in Belgium, comprising c.112MWp of operational, ready-to-build and under-construction installations under long-term contracts with a blue-chip customer base. Joulz sees material opportunities to offer its broader suite of BtM energy infrastructure solutions to this existing customer base, as well as to other Belgian C&I customers. 

These two acquisitions increase Joulz’s proforma EBITDA by c.70%, add heat capabilities to its portfolio of solutions, and materially advance Joulz’s strategy to expand into other attractive European markets by establishing scale platforms in Italy and Belgium - two of Europe’s most attractive BtM energy infrastructure markets. Joulz is also seeing demand from existing customers to support them in additional countries, and the enlarged Joulz group will be well positioned for this.

To support completion of the two acquisitions and continued investment in Joulz’s significant organic growth pipeline, 3iN provided Joulz with additional funding of €107 million.