Comverge is an American privately held company that provides software, hardware, and services to

electric utilities An electric utility is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major pr ...

implementing

demand response Demand response is a change in the power consumption of an electric utility customer to better match the demand for power with the supply. Until the 21st century decrease in the cost of pumped storage and batteries electric energy could not b ...

and

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...

programs.

History

Comverge began as divisions of

Scientific Atlanta Scientific Atlanta, Inc. was a Georgia, United States-based manufacturer of cable television, telecommunications, and broadband equipment. Scientific Atlanta was founded in 1951 by a group of engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an ...

and

Lucent Technologies Inc. Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the divestiture of the former AT&T Technologies business u ...

in 1974 and 1991, respectively. Comverge was organized in 1997 as a Delaware corporation by Acorn Energy, Inc. At this point, the company made the strategic decision in 2002 to develop, own, and operate load management systems for the benefit of electric utilities. Comverge was a standalone, privately held company owned by H.I.G. Capital, a leading global private equity investment firm with more than $17 billion of capital under management. In May 2017 Comverge was acquired by

Itron Itron is an American technology company that offers products and services on energy and water resource management. Its headquarters is in Liberty Lake, Washington, United States. Its products are related to smart grid, smart gas and smart water ...

Activities

Comverge has worked with a wide range of investor-owned, public power, and electric cooperative utilities. Notable clients include

Pepco Holdings Inc. Pepco Holdings was a holding company incorporated in February 2001 for the purpose of effecting the acquisition of Conectiv Power Delivery by Potomac Electric Power Company (better known as "Pepco"). The acquisition was completed on August 1, 20 ...

(PHI), whose Energy Wise Rewards Program with Comverge recruited over 51 percent of eligible households in its Maryland service territory to participate; and the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO), which had recruited 50 percent of eligible households into their CoolSentry program as of October 2013. Comverge also works with Gulf Power and helped launch the Energy ''Select'' program in 2000, which is one of the country's largest and most successful critical-peak pricing programs. The Gulf Power Energy Select program gives more than 14,500 participants greater control over their energy usage. It enables them to pre-program their central cooling and heating systems, electric water heaters, and pool pumps to respond automatically to specific pricing tiers and dynamic price signals from Gulf Power. Comverge is highly active during each year's summer cooling season, which typically runs from June to September (varying based on region), during which residents’ energy usage spikes due to the use of air conditioners to combat high temperatures. In 2012, Comverge saved its customers 32 gigawatt-hours (gWh) of electricity from June through September, which was equivalent to taking more than 30,000 homes off the grid for one month.

References

{{reflist Privately held companies based in Georgia (U.S. state) Energy companies of the United States Demand response