Tualatin-based Powin has acquired an energy storage technology company to help it give customers grid-scale battery systems that integrate seamlessly with solar and wind power plants.
Utilities and grid managers frequently co-locate storage with renewable energy in the hope of capturing the full value of the variable energy generation.
Terms were not disclosed in Powin’s acquisition of EKS Energy, which on its website lists offices in San Diego and Spain.
Powin has done co-located systems before but said EKS’ power conversion and energy management systems will support its Centipede modular battery system and optimize energy production from solar and wind power generators, and be a benefit with microgrids and complex grid codes. Having the technology in house will also mitigate supply chain concerns.
“The EKS acquisition will give us direct access to an industry-leading team, their power conversion technology, advanced controls, and decades’ worth of experience, enabling Powin to offer a fully wrapped solution to further enhance the customer experience,” Powin CEO Geoff Brown said in a statement. “This landmark deal accelerates our mission to building the grid of the future by delivering safe, scalable and integrated storage solutions.”
As long as two years ago Brown cited solar-plus-storage as “a primary driver of large-project growth.”
Storage can play a role anywhere on a grid, but co-location can bring operational benefits, including capturing clean energy that might otherwise be lost (curtailed, as it’s known in the energy sector) due to grid congestion or other factors.
EKS arose from Greenpower Technologies Group, or GPTech, a leading energy storage inverter company, according to its website.
“With over a decade of experience and 4.5 gigawatts of global inverter installations, the EKS Energy team has proven to be able to deploy and interconnect our solutions in many of the toughest and (most) complicated grid conditions in the world,” EKS CEO Javier Landero said in a statement. “With Powin, there is endless potential in how we can integrate our software capabilities, as well as our AC and DC hardware together into a seamless package at large scale.”
Powin took a big leap forward in early 2021 when Trilantic North America and Energy Impact Partners poured $100 million into the company, taking a controlling interest but leaving Brown and other longtime managers in place. Then in July this year, Trilantic and Energy Impact joined with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, on $135 million in additional investment into the company.
Powin has more than doubled its headcount in Oregon in the past two years, to about 250 people, out of more than 300 total employees. The company has an office in Portland in addition to its headquarters in Tualatin.
