Catalyst Power Gets $15M Facility for Onsite Energy

Catalyst Power has closed a revolving credit facility of up to $15M with East West Bank to finance the first phase of its distributed combined heat and power and solar pipeline. The facility runs through 2029, giving the New York energy company a debt instrument designed for repeatable project development rather than a one-time equity milestone.

The structure matters because Catalyst Power builds, owns, and operates energy-producing assets at customer sites. Commercial and industrial customers can buy the resulting power through long-term agreements instead of funding the equipment upfront. That transfers the capital and execution burden to Catalyst Power, which now has a lender relationship sized for the first part of that job.

The September 10 announcement does not disclose the interest rate, fees, covenants, collateral, borrowing base, amount already drawn, or the number and capacity of projects to be financed. A facility of up to $15M is therefore not the same as $15M of equity raised or cash already spent. The useful signal is that a commercial bank has agreed to finance Catalyst Power's project pipeline within an undisclosed credit framework.

What Catalyst Power closed

The financing is a revolving credit facility running through 2029. Catalyst Power says it will support the initial phase of a pipeline spanning commercial-scale combined heat and power, commonly called CHP, and solar projects. A revolver can be drawn, repaid, and drawn again according to its terms, which can make it a better fit for a sequence of projects than a single fixed loan.

That fit is important for distributed-energy development. Each customer site has its own load profile, equipment, utility economics, permitting path, construction schedule, and operating risk. Catalyst Power has to identify eligible projects, underwrite them, sign customer agreements, install the equipment, and keep the assets performing long after the press release leaves the homepage.

The company did not identify the projects entering the facility or say how much capacity will be allocated to CHP versus solar. It also described the facility as the first of its kind for commercial-scale CHP, a company claim that was not accompanied by an independent market study. Those gaps do not erase the transaction, but they keep the story attached to what has actually been disclosed.

Why CHP changes the energy equation

CHP generates electricity onsite and captures thermal energy that would otherwise be wasted. A facility can use that heat for hot water, space heating, industrial processes, or cooling, allowing one fuel input to do more work. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says CHP systems typically achieve 65-80% total-system efficiency, compared with roughly 50-55% for separate grid electricity and onsite heat in its general example.

Catalyst Power says its commercial-scale CHP systems can reach 70-80% efficiency by using recovered heat for buildings and water. That range is consistent with EPA's general guidance, although actual performance depends on the equipment, fuel, operating profile, and whether a customer can use the thermal output when it is available.

Onsite generation can also avoid some transmission and distribution losses and reduce a site's dependence on grid purchases. The Department of Energy's Onsite Energy Program describes behind-the-meter resources such as CHP and thermal storage as tools that can improve resilience, flexibility, and operating costs for industrial facilities and other large energy users.

None of that makes every CHP installation automatically clean. Many systems use natural gas, and emissions performance depends on efficiency, fuel, utilization, and the grid generation displaced. Catalyst Power's commercial case rests on matching the right technology to the right customer site, then proving the economics and reliability over years of operation.

The customer is buying a handoff

Catalyst Power's model combines market-based retail electricity with onsite assets that it builds, owns, and operates. The company presents that blend as a way for middle-market commercial and industrial customers to reduce costs and improve budget certainty without making an upfront capital investment in generation equipment.

The handoff sounds simple from the customer's side and becomes complicated on Catalyst Power's side. The company must source equipment, manage construction, integrate the asset with a live facility, operate and maintain it, manage energy-market exposure, and preserve enough project performance to repay its lender. The revolving facility puts capital behind that operating chain.

Catalyst Power reports more than 8,500 customers across 12 states and 41 utility territories in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest. Those are company-reported figures. The company's public homepage separately lists service in nine states, so the exact scope of the latest footprint remains a disclosure that Catalyst Power should reconcile as it expands.

The capital stack behind Catalyst Power

East West Bank is entering a company already backed by DRW Holdings and BP Energy Partners. In 2020, BP Energy Partners and Catalyst management announced up to $60M of initial equity backing. In 2025, DRW Energy Trading made an undisclosed strategic equity investment.

Those earlier transactions should not be added to the new credit line as though they were one funding total. Equity absorbs company risk and participates in ownership; a revolving facility creates borrowing capacity that must be serviced and repaid. The combination does show how Catalyst Power is assembling different forms of capital around an asset-heavy model.

Founder and CEO Gabriel Phillips built the company after working in electricity and gas trading and founding GP Energy Management. Catalyst Power's current leadership page also lists Tim Ricablanca as CTO, John McArdle as CFO, Joel Glassman as COO, and Lucas Miller as Head of Distributed Generation. Miller's role is especially close to the work the new facility is meant to finance: developing, constructing, and integrating CHP, solar, and storage projects.

What the facility must prove

The facility gives Catalyst Power a defined capital envelope and a banking relationship through 2029. It does not disclose how quickly projects will be built, how the line will revolve, or which operating metrics East West Bank will use to measure performance. The proof will arrive through individual customer sites and the unglamorous sequence of underwriting, contracting, construction, commissioning, maintenance, billing, and repayment.

That sequence is the market signal inside the transaction. Distributed energy becomes more scalable when lenders can evaluate a pipeline as a repeatable asset class rather than treat every project as a custom exception. Catalyst Power now has the chance to move CHP and solar projects through that financing loop while commercial and industrial customers keep their attention on the businesses those systems are supposed to power.