EDF Renewables Acquires PowerFlex Systems, Stakes Claim in Distributed Energy Market

by | Sep 3, 2019

This article is included in these additional categories:

(PowerFlex Systems’ Adaptive Charging Network will enable a single ecosystem for distributed energy – integrating EV smart charging, solar, storage and facility load. Photo: Business Wire)

EDF Renewables North America recently announced it has acquired Los Altos, California-based PowerFlex Systems, a managed electric vehicle (EV) charging technology company. The investment is part of EDF Renewables’ continued growth in the distributed energy market, as reflected by their acquisition of groSolar in 2016 and their partnership with EnterSolar last year.

PowerFlex’s patented technology was incubated out of Steven Low’s NetLab research laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. The optimization algorithms and methods were the outgrowth of a broad research program supported by grants from a variety of sources, including the National Science Foundation, ARPA-E, Department of Energy, Southern California Edison, California Energy Commission’s CalSEED program, Caltech’s Resnick Institute, Rothenberg Innovation Initiative and the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator at NREL.

PowerFlex has deployed some of the largest single-site EV charging deployments in the world by using their Adaptive Charging Network (ACN) technology. This system enables site hosts to maximize delivery of electricity to EVs while reducing or eliminating the need for costly utility upgrades by managing charging depending on driver’s demand, building load, onsite generation and other variables.

“For California to meet the 2030 goal of 60% renewable energy and five million EVs, we need to deploy hundreds of thousands of low-cost workplace charging stations that promote daytime charging to prevent curtailment of solar,” said George Lee, CEO of PowerFlex in reference to California’s Duck Curve. “Orchestrating the seamless coordination of variable production from solar with the flexible load from EV charging will be critical to the long-term health of our grid.”

EDF Renewables Distributed Solutions group originates, develops, builds, and operates customer-focused renewable energy projects that incorporate solar, storage, electric vehicle charging, and energy management.

Additional articles you will be interested in.

Stay Informed

Get E+E Leader Articles delivered via Newsletter right to your inbox!

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Share This