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 ServerĀ® 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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