Press Releases
ConsumerPowerline completes acquisition of ancillary services coalition; becoming the largest demand response player in CaliforniaNew York's Leading Strategic Energy Asset Management Company Acquires ASC Creating the Nation's Largest Electricity Demand Response Player
NEW YORK and BREA, California, May 1, 2006 - ConsumerPowerline, the industry's cutting edge strategic energy asset management company acquired Ancillary Services Coalition (ASC), California's leading demand response provider.
The joint company will be the nation's largest electricity demand response provider with more than 700 Megawatts under management - the equivalent of providing electricity to power 700 thousand homes or 175 million sq. feet of office space.
Terry Rich, Executive Vice President of ASC stated "The combination of ASC and ConsumerPowerline will provide incredible opportunity for our current clients to tap into the expertise and skill set that ConsumerPowerline has developed and honed over the past six years. Specifically, we can now offer the firm's broad range of products: comprehensive engineering insight, monitoring, budgeting and forecasting and a broad range of market equations that help clients operate more intelligently to create new stream of cash and savings."
Mr. Rich will join ConsumerPowerline to ensure both a consistency of service delivery to ASC's clients and to help introduce ConsumerPowerline's suite of services to a broader audience. To ensure that the addition of ConsumerPowerline's services are seamlessly integrated into the current ASC client portfolio the company recently issued a seven figure RFP for engineering services within the California market to help support the firm's growth in the region that received more than a dozen responses.
"ConsumerPowerline's vision is to offer clarity in complex markets," said Mike Gordon, founder and president of ConsumerPowerline. "This clarity moves cash and value from the seller to the large consumer. We plan to play an active role in helping shape the strategic development of California's energy markets and policy, and then in explaining these markets to end-users so that they benefit from them."
Ancillary Services Coalition was the pioneer in the Demand Reserves Partnership (DRP), first administered by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and since 2002 run by the California Power Authority. The DRP program is a key component of California's energy management plan. "Over its eight-year history, ASC created a well respected brand as a smart energy management company. It has built a vibrant portfolio of clients that has helped California avoid blackouts by reducing the demand for electricity during periods of peak demand or supply shortfalls. These clients have proactively shed non-critical loads located on-site. With this acquisition, we look forward to broadening ConsumerPowerline's national footprint into the Golden State," added Mr. Gordon.
California's Demand Reserves Partnership (DRP) was created in 1998 to minimize or eliminate the need for involuntary rotating blackouts during times when generating resources are insufficient to meet customer demand. The DRP program is currently operated by the California Power Authority (CPA). Ancillary Services Coalition (ASC) is the leading aggregator in this program. ASC's clients include Praxair (NYSE: PX), Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway Company (NYSE: BRK.A), the Presidio Trust, The City & County of San Francisco as well as various cities, municipalities, water agencies, wastewater facilities and irrigation districts.
These markets were designed to ensure that there is no disruption in the flow of power to consumers in times of a power crisis, creating financial incentives for large energy users to reduce consumption and create 'negaWatts' that can be 'sold' back to the grid lowering the need to turn on very expensive 'peaking plants.'
ConsumerPowerline has established a six-year track record in the metropolitan New York area of working with some of the nation's leading commercial, residential and industrial property owners to manage their participation in the local electricity markets, and has helped its clients turn their energy consumption into a recurring revenue source. "We anticipate that through the addition of ASC to ConsumerPowerline, we will quickly build a critical mass both in California and nationally to help make demand-response a vital component of the nation's suite of energy solutions," said Reena Russell, chief officer of Market & Product Development for ConsumerPowerline.
"The California Demand Reserves Partnership is one of the nation's largest in terms of negaWatts, but has yet to be managed efficiently and profitably from a service provider perspective. We are confident that ConsumerPowerline's management tools, service offerings and strategic expertise in the energy markets will allow us to add value to both ASC's clients and the entire California market." "ASC is extremely excited to become part of the ConsumerPowerline team. We believe the combined firm will continue to build on its leadership role within both the Demand Response and Strategic Energy Asset Management markets", said Terry Rich. "The addition of ASC to ConsumerPowerline will enable us to offer market insight and direction on a coast-to-coast scale." Gordon concluded.
About ConsumerPowerline
ConsumerPowerline (CPLN) (www.consumerpowerline.com) provides strategic energy asset management (SEAM) to its customers under an aligned incentive model while seeking to transfer power and financial returns to the end user. ConsumerPowerline's products and services help its customers pay the least for energy, get the most for energy they buy, and earn the most for what they can reduce. The firm is unique in how it approaches the market - using deregulated market opportunities to first create new revenue for customers. This new income, and the accompanying new information, facilitates customers achieving a lot more a lot sooner. Among the firms comprehensive strategic services are energy curtailment services, engineering, strategic commodity purchase and industrial procurement. These services include advisory plans for companies on how to manage their energy use in times of 'grid crisis,' and to sell the results of this managed use (reduced consumption at emergency moments) back to the local and regional energy markets.
The firm's clients include: CB Richard Ellis, Morgan Stanley, Macy's, Starwood Hotels, Hines Property Management, Forest City Ratner Corporation, Co-op City, Macklowe Properties, RFR Realty, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Newmark Properties, Douglas Elliman Property Management, Cooper Square Realty, Wentworth Management, and dozens of other substantial end-users of energy.