NewEnergyNews: TODAY’S STUDY: SMART GRID WHEELING AND DEALING LOOKED UP IN Q3

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

Every day is Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-WHERE NEW ENERGY NEEDS TO BE
  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-KUWAIT’S POSSIBLE SOLAR
  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-WHAT INDIA WIND NEEDS

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    THE DAY BEFORE

  • TTTA Thursday- HOW CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL WORKS
  • TTTA Thursday-HOW WOMEN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
  • TTTA Thursday-POLITICS AND THE EPA
  • TTTA Thursday-THE ENORMOUS LED OPPORTUNITY

    • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

  • TODAY’S STUDY: THE NEW INTELLIGENT ENERGY EFFICIENCY
  • QUICK NEWS, May 15: MINNESOTA’S SOLAR AMBITIONS IN CONTEXT; RHODE ISLAND’S FIGHT OVER OCEAN WIND; VC MONEY FOR SMART GRID STEADY

    THE DAY BEFORE THAT

  • TODAY’S STUDY: HOW OIL MARKETS ARE MANIPULATED
  • QUICK NEWS, May 14: HUGE BUFFETT WIND BUY IN IOWA; THE VALUE OF ARIZONA’S SUN; MINNESOTA LOVES WIND

    • AND THE DAY BEFORE THAT

  • TODAY’S STUDY: THE VALUE OF SOLAR WITH STORAGE
  • QUICK NEWS, May 13: HOW BIG OIL USES REPUBLICANS; WIND SAVES MONEY FOR RATEPAYERS – STUDY; BRIGHTSOURCE EXEC TALKS SOLAR TOWER TECH & BIZ

    • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

  • Weekend Video: Senator Blasts Senator For Using Religion To Deny Climate Change
  • Weekend Video: The Remarkable Wind In Scotland
  • Weekend Video: The Sci Show Does Solar

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    Anne B. Butterfield of Daily Camera and Huffington Post, is a biweekly contributor to NewEnergyNews

  • Lies, damned lies and politicians (October 8, 2012) by Anne Butterfield (Boulder Daily Camera via NewEnergyNews)

    From the sparring at the first presidential debate, it's pretty sure that energy has become a divisive as well as a competitive issue. Both President Obama and Governor Romney want to be the triumphal producer of energy.

    However Romney likes to smear climate change concerns and clean energy investments, as if all of them go like Solyndra, where a half a billion in loan guarantees went down with the company, as he crowed that 50 percent of clean energy investments supported by the stimulus bill had gone belly up. This was dubbed the "lie of the night" by Michael Grunwald, author of a book about the stimulus bill, citing that maybe one percent of government backed clean energy ventures failed.

    Try getting that rate of safety in your investing. According to a new poll by Hart for the solar industry, voters seem to know that loan guarantees are a steadfast service of government and highly safe, as the Solyndra debacle was deemed unimportant by respondents. Ninety-two percent of registered voters found it important that solar be more widespread, with 70 percent believing that the federal government should be doing more to promote it with incentives (with 71 percent of swing voters feeling this way).

    And, sigh, with tens of thousands of wind power jobs on the chopping block already, Mitt Romney opposes the renewal of the Production Tax Credit. This, even as red states need it renewed, putting him in the dog house with GOP politicians such as Senator Chuck Grassely of Iowa whose state produces 20 percent of its power from wind, and Governor Brownback of Kansas who has made vigorous pleas for the extension of the credit, due to expire this at the end of this year.

    Didn't Romney get the memo? Republican governors are making hay with clean energy such as Haley Barbour and Chris Christie. To Mississippi, Barbour brought four solar sector firms to Mississippi along with two in biofuels plus a clean tech car venture with China. Christie made New Jersey a leading solar market in the nation, this year contending with California for first place.

    But Romney and other high priests of the GOP act as though the only real energy is the type that can be burned, and somehow, Obama has nibbled at this hemlock by constantly touting his success with fracking and his openness to the XL pipeline.

    A truly strange specter is that pipeline; it lets our heartland be used as a byway for tar sands products (which sink rather than float when spilled), so they can go straight to international markets. We get the downsides and none of the upsides -- even as the pipeline could increase gasoline prices in the Midwest, which would lose its existing access to tar sands products.

    One plausible upside of the pipeline being routed through the United States (where it might be built quickly, as would not happen in the alternative route through western Canada) is that it could strengthen the hand of President Obama in his suite of sanctions against Iran, including a worldwide boycott of Iranian oil. Our recent frack-mania allows our nation to resume oil production levels not seen for 15 years and thus strengthens our hand. Three weeks ago Iran admitted having problems selling oil due to U.S. and European sanctions; now the nation's currency is in free fall.

    One certainly hopes that tar sands will thrive mightily as a "psy-ops" against Iran and not as a chemical weapon against our climate, as Dr. James Hansen has sternly warned.

    Never bounded by his prior convictions about the climate, Romney crows that he would authorize the pipeline on day one and build it himself if need be (as if he in his wingtips could "John Wayne" his way around an oil field). It's all such a sham he-man rodeo.

    And no one mentioned the climate -- in spite of hundreds of thousands of petition signatures demanding the topic. Neither candidate pushed clean energy as the vote winner that poll after poll have shown it to be. Authors for DBL Investors in their study of green energy exclaim, "We all need to understand that green jobs are not the idle dreaming of a small group of partisan activists and insiders, but a source of livelihood for millions, literally in all parts of the country." The light shines in the darkness but the darkness of our politics has not understood it.

    Author's note: Want to support my work? Please "fan" me at Huffpost Denver, here (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-butterfield). Thanks.

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    Anne's previous NewEnergyNews columns:

  • Lies, damned lies and politicians (October 8, 2012)
  • Colorado's Elegant Solution to Fracking (April 23, 2012)
  • Shale Gas: From Geologic Bubble to Economic Bubble (March 15, 2012)
  • Taken for granted no more (February 5, 2012)
  • The Republican clown car circus (January 6, 2012)
  • Twenty-Somethings of Colorado With Skin in the Game (November 22, 2011)
  • Occupy, Xcel, and the Mother of All Cliffs (October 31, 2011)
  • Boulder Can Own Its Power With Distributed Generation (June 7, 2011)
  • The Plunging Cost of Renewables and Boulder's Energy Future (April 19, 2011)
  • Paddling Down the River Denial (January 12, 2011)
  • The Fox (News) That Jumped the Shark (December 16, 2010)
  • Click here for an archive of Butterfield columns

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    Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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    Your intrepid reporter

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      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

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    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

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    • Monday, November 19, 2012

    TODAY’S STUDY: SMART GRID WHEELING AND DEALING LOOKED UP IN Q3

    Smart Grid Funding and M&A Q3 2012 Report

    October 2012 (Mercom Capital Group)

    Introduction

    Smart grid venture capital (VC) funding showed some signs of life in Q3 2012 with $238 million in 12 deals. The rise in funding was mostly due to $136 million raised by Alarm.com, a security and home automation company. VC funding in the last three quarters had been relatively weak (Q4 2011 - $66M/10 deals, Q1 2012 – $62M/10 deals, Q2 2012 - $66M/9 deals), whereas VC funding even without the Alarm.com transaction exceeded $100M this quarter.

    The top five deals this quarter included $136 million raised by Alarm.com from ABS Capital Partners, Equis Capital Partners, NJTC Venture Fund, and Technology Crossover Ventures; GridPoint, an energy management company raised $23.3 million (investors undisclosed); Viridity Energy, a demand side management solutions company, raised $15 million from Mitsui; Space-Time Insight, a geospatial information systems company, raised $14 million from EnerTech Capital, Novus Energy Partners, ClearSky Power & Technology Fund, Opus Capital Ventures and Start Up Farms International; and SIGFOX, a wireless connectivity solutions provider for smart metering, building intelligence and M2M among other markets using ultra narrow band technology, raised $12.6 million from Intel Capital, Elaia Partners, Partech Ventures International and iXO Private Equity.

    click to enlarge

    Twenty-two different investors participated in 12 VC deals in Q3 2012, but only EnerTech Capital was involved in multiple deals (two).

    Merger & Acquisition (M&A) activity in Q3 2012 totaled $2.2 billion in five transactions. Top M&A transactions were the $2 billion acquisition of Vivint, a security and home automation services company, by Blackstone, and the $183 million acquisition of smart grid and automation solutions provider ZIV Group by electrical transmission and distribution equipment company Crompton Greaves.

    Two major transactions this quarter -- $136 million raised by Alarm.com and the acquisition of Vivint for $2.2 billion by Blackstone Group -- is part of a growing trend in the United States and UK where home security companies have expanded into home automation either by leveraging their existing customer base or through acquisition.

    click to enlarge

    Apart from Vivint and Alarm.com, other companies in the home security/home automation business that were involved in funding and M&A deals in the last few years include AlertMe, Intamax Systems, Control4, iControl Networks, Home Automation, APX Alarm and Xanboo.

    With a built-in customer base, these companies have expanded their services to provide home automation including everything from interactive home security and monitoring, home energy management (appliances and electronics) and control, and even automated home health services to solar lease services. Vivint for example, through its Vivint Solar division has entered the solar lease business, is again leveraging its existing customer base and moving further from energy management to include generation.

    We may continue to see transactions in this niche where security, cable & telecom companies expand their offerings to cover the whole “Connected or Digital” home services which would include everything from communication and automation services to solar installation. We will also be watching for strategic M&As in this area as companies look to add service and technologies needed to compete.

    click to enlarge

    2011-12 (YTD) Smart Grid Funding and M&A

    Top acquirers with multiple deals in 2012 year to date: McWane Technology (Nighthawk and Synapse Wireless), Eaton (Cooper Industries and Gycom (Business Units in Sweden, Denmark and Finland), Siemens (Senergy Sistemas de Medicao and RuggedCom), Itron (SmartSynch and C&N Engineering’s GasGate Technology).

    Top acquirers with multiple deals in 2011: Schneider Electric (Telvent, Summit Energy, Viridity (DCIM technology), ABB (Power Corp, Epyon, Obvient Strategies), GE (FMC-Tech, Remote Energy Monitoring, SmartSignal Corporation), Alstom (Utility Integration Solutions, Psymetrix), Ameresco (Energy & Power solutions, Applied Energy Group) and EnerNOC (Energy Response, M2M Communications).

    Top acquirers with multiple deals in 2010: ABB (Insert Key Solutions, Ventyx), EnerNOC (Global Energy Partners, SmallFoot), GE (Opal Software, SNC-Lavalin (ECS Business, Network Management, Control Software), Honeywell (E-mon, Akuacom), Navigation Capital Partners (LEPService, Specialized Technical Services), Siemens (Site Controls, QuickStab (Software Package) - (SCS Info Tech)…

    click to enlarge

    VC Funding by Quarter

    VC funding in Q3 2012 amounted to $238 million in 12 deals. By comparison, funding in Q3 2011 was $97 million in 10 deals and Q2 2012 was $66 million in nine deals.

    VC Funding by Technology 2011-2012 (YTD)

    Looking at 2011 to 2012 year-to-date, Smart Grid Communication Technology companies have received the most funding as a technology group followed by Grid Optimization, Advance Meter Infrastructure (AMI) companies and Demand Response companies.

    click to enlarge

    VC Funding by Stage

    The average deal size in Q3 2012 was $19.8 million compared to $7.3 million in Q2 2012.

    The spikes in the chart below for average VC deal size were due to some larger deals: Q2 2010 - (Landis+Gyr $165M; OpenPeak $52M) Q3 2010 - (Trilliant $106M; Nexant $43M) Q4 2010 - (OPower - $50M; AlertMe $24M; Ice Energy $24M; Tendril $23M) Q3 2011 - (Six deals out of 10 in Q3 were for $10 million or more) Q3 2012 – (Alarm.com $136M; GridPoint $23.3M) *The average deal size shot up considerably from $7.3 million in Q2 2012 to $19.8 million in Q3 2012, primarily due to the $136 million Alarm.com deal. Without the Alarm.com transaction, average VC deal size was $9.3 million.

    click to enlarge

    Top 5 VC Funding Deals

    The top VC deal in Q3 2012 included $136 million raised by Alarm.com, a security and home automation company, and $23.3 million raised by GridPoint, an energy management company. Other top deals included $15 million raised by Viridity Energy, a demand side management solutions company, $14 million raised by Space-Time Insight, a geospatial information systems startup and $12.6 million raised by SIGFOX, a wireless connectivity solutions provider for smart metering, building intelligence and M2M among other markets using ultra-narrow band technology.

    VC Activity by Country

    The United States accounted for more than half of total VC funding raised: $221 million in nine deals…

    click to enlarge

    Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)

    Top M&A transactions in Q3 2012 included the $2 billion acquisition of home automation-plus-solar player Vivint by Blackstone, and the $183 million acquisition of smart grid and Automation Solutions provider ZIV Group by electrical transmission and distribution equipment company Crompton Greaves. Other M&A transactions included the acquisition of Home Automation Inc. by Leviton; the acquisition of majority stake in Nighthawk, a wireless smart grid solutions provider, by McWane Technology and the acquisition of Synapse Wireless also by McWane Technology, all with M&A transaction details undisclosed…

    posted by Herman K. Trabish @ 7:28 AM

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