ATLANTA and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Bloom Energy, Southern Company and its subsidiary PowerSecure have announced a strategic alliance, which will include project investment and joint-technology development to provide behind-the-meter energy solutions. PowerSecure will acquire an estimated 50 megawatts of Bloom Energy Servers under long-term power purchase agreements with high-quality commercial and industrial customers.
By bringing together the scale and utility sector leadership of Southern Company, its industry-leading suite of PowerSecure distributed infrastructure assets, and the Silicon Valley-style innovation and distributed generation leadership of Bloom Energy, the alliance will provide an integrated, comprehensive energy solution.
The solution is designed to fully integrate Bloom's firm 24x7x365 Energy Server platform with PowerSecure's smart storage solutions. The result will deliver a reliable on-site generation solution tuned to the customer's precise power requirements that will also flexibly adapt to changing conditions, bringing customers intelligent optimization of their energy usage while driving meaningful cost savings and long-term cost certainty.
"As the technology revolution in energy evolves, we must continue developing innovative solutions on the other side of the meter to deliver greater value for customers," said Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO Thomas A. Fanning. "This strategic relationship marrying PowerSecure's smart storage and other distributed energy solutions with Bloom Energy's fuel cell technology allows us to play offense in the rapidly changing energy landscape by expanding our distributed infrastructure business."
"Like the computing and mobile telephony revolutions before, technology innovation is challenging assumptions of what is possible in electric power. Today, offering a customized power solution that is tailored to the needs of an individual business is technologically possible and economically attractive," said KR Sridhar, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Bloom Energy.
This fully-supported integrated platform will be designed to meet customer needs on several critical dimensions:
- Enabling optimized use of power to drive cost predictability and strategic savings.
- Delivering the quality and exact type of power required by each part of their business, for example, AC power for offices and DC power for data centers.
- The ability to dial-in the level of reliability required from "no need" all the way up to mission critical reliability for tier IV data centers and critical operations.
- Providing the level of resiliency needed to ensure that the risk of operational disruption due to external events such as weather or other natural disasters is minimized.
- Enabling preferred level of performance on sustainability attributes.
The alliance begins with customer momentum. The Home Depot is expected to deploy the joint Bloom fuel cell + PowerSecure storage solution at approximately 60 stores, in addition to the 140 stores currently operating Bloom Energy Servers. Another customer will deploy 30 megawatts of distributed power through this alliance supporting hospitals, clinics and administrative centers.
About Southern Company
Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is America's premier energy company, with 44,000 megawatts of generating capacity and 1,500 billion cubic feet of combined natural gas consumption and throughput volume serving 9 million electric and gas utility customers through its subsidiaries. The company provides clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy through electric utilities in four states, natural gas distribution utilities in seven states, a competitive generation company serving wholesale customers across America and a nationally recognized provider of customized energy solutions, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and affordable prices that are below the national average. Through an industry-leading commitment to innovation, Southern Company and its subsidiaries are inventing America's energy future by developing the full portfolio of energy resources, including carbon-free nuclear, 21st century coal, natural gas, renewables and energy efficiency, and creating new products and services for the benefit of customers. Southern Company has been named by the U.S. Department of Defense and G.I. Jobs magazine as a top military employer, recognized among the Top 50 Companies for Diversity by DiversityInc, listed by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the 40 Best Companies for Diversity and designated a Top Employer for Hispanics by Hispanic Network. The company has earned a National Award of Nuclear Science and History from the National Atomic Museum Foundation for its leadership and commitment to nuclear development and is continually ranked among the top utilities in Fortune's annual World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility rankings. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.
About PowerSecure
Southern Company subsidiary PowerSecure is a leading provider of utility and energy technologies to electric utilities, and their industrial, institutional and commercial customers. PowerSecure provides products and services in the areas of distributed generation, storage and renewables, energy efficiency and utility infrastructure. The company is a pioneer in developing distributed generation power systems with sophisticated smart grid capabilities and microgrid controls, including the ability to forecast electricity demand and electronically deploy the systems to deliver more efficient, and environmentally friendly, power at peak power times; provide utilities with dedicated electric power generation capacity to utilize for demand response purposes; and provide customers with the most dependable standby power in the industry. PowerSecure has over 1,500 distributed generation systems installed across the U.S. For more information, visit www.powersecure.com.
About Bloom Energy
Bloom Energy is a provider of a revolutionary on-site power generation platform called the Bloom Energy Server® based on proprietary fuel cell technology that provides 24x7 firm power that is reliable, clean and cost effective. With over 200 MW deployed, Bloom Energy Servers are proven in the field with many of the world's leading companies and organizations including Apple, Wal-Mart, AT&T, eBay and FedEx, as well as notable non-profit organizations such as Caltech. Also, with its Mission Critical Systems practice, Bloom Energy provides grid-independent power for critical loads in data centers and manufacturing. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit www.bloomenergy.com.
Morgan Stanley served as Bloom's exclusive financial advisor for this portfolio transaction.
Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include statements, among other things, concerning the expected benefits of the transactions, including the development of energy solutions, future growth and strategic opportunities. These forward-looking statements are often characterized by the use of words such as "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "believe," "may," "should," "will," "could," "continue", "opportunity" and the negative or plural of these words and other comparable terminology. Although Southern Company and Bloom Energy believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in making forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these expectations include, among other things, the following: the possibility that the anticipated benefits from the transactions and growth opportunities cannot be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected; the diversion of management time on transaction-related issues; the impact of legislative, regulatory and competitive changes; and other risk factors relating to the energy industry, as detailed from time to time in Southern Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that the strategic opportunities or transactions will in fact be realized or consummated. Additional information about these factors and about the material factors or assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements with respect to Southern Company may be found under Item 1.A. in Southern Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. The foregoing list of important factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning the transactions or other matters attributable to Southern Company, Bloom Energy or any other person acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referenced above. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this release. Neither Southern Company nor Bloom Energy undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, except as may be required by law.
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SOURCE Southern Company