Gary Bloom

The press release states, “Siemens Industry, Inc.  announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire all of the stock of eMeter Corporation, headquartered in San Mateo, California (“eMeter”). The parties expect to close the deal in December 2011, subject to necessary approvals and customary closing conditions. The parties will not disclose the terms of the agreement.

eMeter will be part of the Smart Grid Division of the Siemens Infrastructure & Cities Sector, which is housed within Siemens Industry, Inc. in the United States. eMeter will become a global business segment and center of competence for Meter Data Management (MDM), and will continue to operate from its San Mateo headquarters as part of the Smart Grid Division. eMeter employees will be integrated into the Siemens business structure. With the completion of this purchase, Siemens is making a strong commitment to strengthening its position in the Smart Grid market.

With its EnergyIP platform, eMeter is a leader in platform and MDM application software for this key market and is expected to enhance Siemens’ position. eMeter’s expertise will complement Siemens’ technology portfolio and integrated Smart Grid solutions offering.

“The acquisition of eMeter will allow Siemens to expand its reach globally in the Energy Information and Meter Data Management space,” said Jan Mrosik, CEO of the Smart Grid Division of the Siemens Infrastructure & Cities Sector. “Ever-increasing demand for solutions to improve the effectiveness of the Smart Grid for cities and utilities makes this acquisition even more important. eMeter is renowned for its superior software and services capabilities that enable electric, gas and water utilities to realize the full benefits of the Smart Grid. A combined portfolio of Siemens’ products and solutions and eMeter’s software represents a unique and complementary offering to our customers.”

“Siemens’ global reach and innovative products and services coupled with eMeter’s renowned EnergyIP platform, supports an aggressive growth strategy and further penetration into the Smart Grid market,” said Gary Bloom, CEO and president of eMeter. “I am confident Siemens will provide eMeter with the level of investment required in people, technology and operations to significantly strengthen our position in the market.”

J.P. Morgan served as financial advisor to eMeter in connection with this transaction.”

Read more: eMeter Press Release

“Over the past several years, EnerNOC has built a significant portfolio of demand response capacity in Pennsylvania, and with this contract, our network of commercial, institutional, and industrial sites will deliver more value to Pennsylvanian ratepayers,” said Tim Healy, Chairman and CEO of EnerNOC. “We believe that leveraging demand response is the most reliable and cost-effective way to achieve Pennsylvania’s goal of reducing energy consumption and demand. With this partnership, EnerNOC will continue a long tradition of delivering proven, integrated demand-side resources to its utility customers, like PPL, and help their customers experience the bottom-line benefits of better energy management.””

Read more: Press Release

“With rising energy demand and a national imperative to reduce carbon emissions, smart grid solutions like demand response can make a real difference,” said Paul Bircham, Electricity North West Customer Strategy and Regulation Director. “We see this programme as an opportunity to work more closely with our commercial and industrial customers while introducing them to the benefits of managing energy demand, and we are pleased to be working with EnerNOC in the process.”

EnerNOC works with every facility in its DemandSMART™ network to develop an energy curtailment plan that is customised to site-specific energy usage. When dispatched by a distribution network operator, like Electricity North West, EnerNOC manages its portfolio of participating sites in real-time to ensure curtailment plans are met. Demand response creates payments for programme participants while helping to relieve system constraints, lower the cost of energy for all ratepayers, and encourage more efficient energy usage across the grid.

“The United Kingdom is in the process of creating one of the world’s most advanced, low-carbon electricity grids. Electricity North West is participating actively in that transition by encouraging energy users to use electricity more strategically,” said David Brewster, President of EnerNOC. “The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change has indicated that demand response will be an important part of energy market reforms, but Electricity North West is already ahead of the curve. We value its leadership in demand-side management and look forward to working together.””

Read more: EnerNOC Press Release

The acquisition of EnergyConnect would position Johnson Controls’ Building Efficiency business as a demand response leader in the large commercial, industrial and institutional markets. EnergyConnect’s demand response technology and service platform provides energy managers and facility operators real-time energy information and access to energy markets, enabling them to control their energy spend. The combination of energy efficiency, smart building technologies and demand response services creates an additional platform for growth in a rapidly growing segment of the energy market.

“As our customers continue to demand more sophisticated capabilities to manage their energy costs, integrating demand response services with energy efficiency makes EnergyConnect and Johnson Controls Building Efficiency a natural fit,” said C. David Myers, vice president, Johnson Controls and president, Building Efficiency. “Coupling EnergyConnect’s expertise in demand response with Johnson Controls’ strength in smart building technologies would enable us to expand our offerings and help our customers better manage their overall energy spend.”

“We are excited about the prospects of joining forces with Johnson Controls,” said Kevin Evans, president and Chief Executive Officer of EnergyConnect. “In addition to the natural synergies in our businesses, the Johnson Controls’ global footprint and distribution channels would enable us to accelerate the transformation of electricity use in response to market prices while enhancing the efficiency and reliability of the grid.”"

Read more: Johnson Controls Press Release

“We are thrilled to raise this strategic round of financing from three of the best venture capital firms in the business,” said Dan Yates, CEO and co-founder of OPOWER.  “The addition of Accel Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers builds on the strength of our existing investors, and is an important step forward in achieving our goal of engaging tens of millions of households about their energy use and helping drive the next wave of energy efficiency in the U.S. and abroad.”

OPOWER’s SaaS platform is the industry’s leading customer engagement platform, and has quickly gained popularity in the utility industry as an innovative, information-based energy efficiency program, as well as the leading front-end for utilities’ Smart Grid deployments.  The platform uses data analytics to evaluate a household’s energy usage patterns – without the need for hardware to be installed inside the home – and applies behavioral science techniques and a multi-channel communication strategy to engage millions of homes and motivate energy saving actions.  Currently deployed to more than two million homes, OPOWER is delivering enough energy savings to power nearly 50,000 homes on an ongoing basis.  The company expects its deployed customer base to more than quadruple in 2011.  OPOWER currently works with 45 utilities throughout the U.S., including seven of the country’s ten largest energy providers.

“OPOWER is an elegant and proven solution for utilities to cost-effectively reach energy efficiency goals,” said Ray Lane of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.  “It is a straight forward value for customers – clearly measuring savings on their energy bills.”

“We believe OPOWER has a profound opportunity to leverage the power of the Internet and social media to deepen consumer engagement in the energy world, and to use this engagement to drive critical gains in efficiency,” said Peter Wagner, partner at Accel Partners.  “We look forward to supporting OPOWER’s continued growth as the next-generation SaaS leader of the energy sector.”

Read more: Press Release

The $24 million investment provides Ice Energy with working and growth capital to support its deployment of utility-scale distributed energy storage projects throughout the United States and Canada, including a 53-Megawatt project currently underway with the Southern California Public Power Authority, the largest of its kind in the industry.

TIAA-CREF joined new and existing investors, including Energy Capital Partners, Good Energies, Sail Ventures and Second Avenue Partners, to participate in the round.

TIAA-CREF’s $4.5 million private equity investment in Ice Energy is its first under a new Green Building Technology Partnership with Good Energies, through which TIAA- CREF’s Global Social and Community Investing Department will invest as much as $50 million in energy efficiency companies and green building technologies alongside Good Energies’ venture capital investments. These investments seek to improve the energy efficiency of commercial buildings.

Energy storage is widely considered a key requirement for improving energy efficiency, maximizing the value of intermittent wind and solar generation, and meeting rising peak electrical demand. Ice Energy’s distributed energy storage solution enables utility companies to use more efficient, less expensive off-peak power to produce and store energy for use during periods of peak demand.

The widespread installation by utilities of Ice Energy’s ice-based energy storage technology directly on individual commercial buildings has the potential to permanently shift as much as 40% of peak energy demand to off-peak hours. When aggregated and deployed at scale, this represents a significant new asset-based, sustainable energy resource equivalent to thousands of megawatts of clean peaking power for utilities, enabling them to deliver reliable, competitively priced electric service to their customers in a sustainable, environmentally-sensitive manner.

For the businesses and buildings where the units are installed, this means lower daytime energy consumption, increased efficiency and lower energy costs, a smaller environmental footprint, and improved comfort for customers and employees.

“At TIAA-CREF, we continue to support innovations that improve the viability of alternative energy sources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Cherie Santos-Wuest, director of TIAA- CREF’s Global Social & Community Investments “Advanced energy storage is a crucial part of the new clean energy economy, and Ice Energy’s technology is at the forefront in terms of cost- effectiveness, scalability and reliability.”

“We are pleased to collaborate with this strategic group of investors and look forward to growing Ice Energy and the broader energy storage market with their support. Their engagement and commitment is tangible proof of the critical role energy storage must play if we are to achieve a cleaner, smarter and more efficient energy system for our country,” said Frank Ramirez, CEO of Ice Energy. “This latest investment gives us considerable resources to further develop our technology platform, explore new products, and rapidly expand our solution across a much wider set of customers.”"

Read more: Ice Energy

Site Controls’ energy management platform, Site-Command™, integrates hardware and software to provide customers with real-time centralized visibility and control of multiple locations from a central point. Site Controls’ product line broadens Siemens’ portfolio of building automation and HVAC control solutions and is intended to drive Building Technologies’ leadership in the retail and commercial markets, including big box retailers, fitness clubs, convenience stores and restaurants.

Site Controls further leverages its energy management platform through SureGrid™, a turn-key energy aggregation and demand response solution which reduces peak power demand when the electrical grid is under stress.  SureGrid offers customers, utilities and grid operators an industry-leading automated, cloud-based intelligent load management technology.  The combined portfolio of Site Controls and the Building Technologies Division significantly improves both companies’ position in the burgeoning Smart Grid/Smart Consumption market.

“We are keenly interested in developing solutions for our customers that help increase energy efficiency, margins, productivity and competitiveness,” said Andreas Schierenbeck, President of the Building Technologies Division. “With Site Controls’ energy management platform as part of our product portfolio, we have new tools to offer business owners and facility managers that centrally manage energy across the enterprise. Furthermore, our customers can participate in Smart Grid demand response programs with local utilities. The new offering of Siemens Building Technologies combined with the Energy Sector will accelerate our growth in the fast expanding Smart Consumption/Smart Grid market.”

“We are proud of the efforts of our team which built Site Controls into a technology leader and are thrilled to be joining forces with Siemens, a world-wide pioneer of efficiency and smart grid solutions,” said Dan Sharplin, Site Controls CEO.  “This transaction takes the Site Controls vision to the next level and creates significant value for our customers, employees, shareholders, and for Siemens.”

Siemens will continue to offer the same level of expertise and quality solutions that Site Controls’ customers have come to expect. Over the last several years, Site Controls’ product innovation, technical flexibility and customer focus have been providing commercial building operators with solutions that consistently deliver operating transparency from location to location. Siemens plans to maintain Site Controls’ 75-person team in Austin and integrate its solutions into the Building Technologies Division’s overall product portfolio.”

Source: Siemens

Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman, Sachs & Co and J.P. Morgan will act as joint book-running managers for the offering. Co-lead managers of the transaction are Baird, Cannacord Genuity, Piper Jaffray, RBC Capital Markets and Stephens Inc.

16.2 million ADSs will be offered for sale. Of the 16.2 million ADSs, 10.3 million ADSs (approximately 64 percent of the offering, based on the mid-point of the price range) will represent new shares issued by Elster Group SE and the remainder will be offered by direct or indirect shareholders of Elster. An overallotment option of up to 2.43 million additional ADSs (15 percent of the ADSs being offered) will also be available from Rembrandt Holdings, Elster’s largest shareholder, which is owned by funds advised by CVC Capital Partners. Elster expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $152 million from the offering, which it intends to use to repay a portion of its outstanding debt.

Assuming completion of the offering and a full exercise of the over-allotment option, Elster’s free float will be approximately 18.6 percent.

The Elster ADSs will be offered to institutional and retail investors in the United States and to institutional investors outside of the United States. The ticker symbol for Elster on the New York Stock Exchange will be ELT.”

Source: Press Release