Waukesha-based
Generac Holdings Inc. plans to acquire Denver-based
Enbala Power Networks Inc. in a deal that will help the company expand its energy technology offerings.
Terms of the deal, which is expected to close within 30 days, were not disclosed.
Enbala is a provider of distributed energy optimization and control software. Its offerings are used by utilities and energy retailers to allow distributed energy resources to help with real-time energy balancing needs of power systems and energy markets.
Essentially, the software helps take energy from things like generators, battery packs, solar systems, wind turbines, geothermal loops or other devices and helps make it available to utilities when it is needed.
"We're on the leading edge of a remarkable transformation of the electrical grid, moving from a dated and centralized power distribution model to one that will be digitized, decentralized and more resilient," said Aaron Jagdfeld, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Generac. "Enbala is a proven virtual power plant and distributed energy resource management platform, and we believe their business model can be incredibly synergistic with our business.”
Enbala will be part of Generac’s new energy technology business group, which will combine its push into the clean energy space with its connectivity teams. Jagdfeld said there will be no immediate impact on the company’s local workforce, but the deal would support the growth of its software development teams in the future.
Generac expanded into clean energy last year with the acquisitions of Pika Energy and Neurio Technology. Those deals, along with the company’s IoT teams in Waukesha, allowed Generac to launch an energy management and battery storage offering.
The Enbala offering expands the company’s reach beyond a consumer’s home through a connection to the power grid.
Jagdfeld described the Enbala software as essentially creating a virtual power plant and noted there are millions of Generac standby generators already installed around the country.
“It’s a significantly underutilized asset,” he said, noting that homeowners typically buy a standby generator as insurance against a power outage and it rarely runs. The opportunity to have their unit run a few hours a month and receive compensation for it would allow homeowners to get more from their generator.
Beyond monetizing the existing install base, Jagdfeld said having a connection to the Enbala service will also allow Generac to sell more equipment – whether it’s a generator or battery storage system – as there is a new return on investment for buyers.
“Now I can change my sales pitch around these assets,” he said.
Jagdfeld said the acquisition also helps position Generac as the energy landscape changes in the future.
“This legacy grid model is going to change dramatically over the next 10 years and it's going to become much more decentralized in nature and that’s going to be really the result of two forces, regulation and technology,” Jagdfeld said.
He noted the technology to connect distributed assets to the grid has improved dramatically over the last several years while the regulation push will come from the attention paid to climate change.
“As climate change and the conversation around climate change continues to march onward, the pressure on utility companies to decarbonize, digitize and decentralize their grids and their networks, it’s going to become something they can’t avoid,” Jagdfeld said.
Jagdfeld will be one of the featured presenters at the upcoming BizTimes Next Generation Manufacturing Summit. The free virtual event will take place from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Oct. 15 and includes a 25-minute one-on-one interview with Jagdfeld discussing how Generac is approaching the macro trends shaping the company’s future.
Register for the event here.
