Schneider's $268M Acquisition of Summit Energy Tightens EECA Market

Published March 25, 2011

In a bid to strengthen its position in energy management services, Schneider Electric plans to acquire energy procurement and sustainability services company Summit Energy Services Inc. for $268 million.

Schneider Electric, headquartered in Rueil-Malmaison, France, announced yesterday that it had reached an agreement to purchase Summit Energy, based in Louisville, Ken.

The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval and closing conditions, is the second major deal announced this week involving companies working to make the built environment more energy efficient, smarter and better connected.

On Tuesday, IBM announced plans to acquire Tririga, the developer of enterprise software for real estate and facility management, for an undisclosed sum.

“The acquisition of Summit Energy allows Schneider Electric to broaden our energy management services and solution portfolio, offering customers the ability to manage and optimize their energy consumption from the supply side through the demand side, while also growing our energy and environmental online reporting capabilities,” Chris Curtis, Schneider Electric’s senior executive vice president for North America, said in a statement.

In the announcement, Summit Energy's President and CEO Steve Wilhite said: “In recent years, we have invested heavily in people and technology to serve our clients. In combining our strengths with Schneider Electric’s resources, Summit Energy will be even better positioned to lead our clients to cost-effective and sustainable energy.”

In the broader context of energy and carbon management, "the recent acquisitions by Schneider Electric and IBM for energy management and software companies show the continued move of larger companies to shore up their offerings," said Paul Baier, vice president of sustainability consulting at Groom Energy and GreenBiz.com senior contributor in comments provided via email.

Schneider executives like to say their company has power devices in 70 percent of the world's buildings. Specializing in integrated solutions, Schneider points to a track record of work involving energy and infrastructure, industrial processes, building automation, data centers and related networks and in the residential market.

The acquisition of Summit Energy brings Schneider a heavy hitter in the field of customer-focused service platforms for energy procurement and energy management. According to Summit, the 20-year-old firm manages more than $20 billion in annual energy spend for 650-plus companies with facilities in some 90 countries. Summit expects to generate about $65 million in sales this year.

Like many firms operating in the efficiency space, Summit moved from a traditional approach to energy management to expanded offerings that reflect customers' growing needs for sophisticated tools to calculate and manage carbon data. With its product dashboarDView, Summit was considered among the top 10 companies providing energy enterprise carbon accounting last year, according to the 2011 Enterprise Energy and Carbon Accounting Buyers Guide produced by Groom Energy and GreenBiz.com.

Leslie Guevarra is an editor at GreenBiz.com.

She has been a reporter and editor online and in print, an associate producer and public affairs program host on television, and a podcaster.

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Schneider's $268M Acquisition of Summit Energy Tightens EECA Market

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