By Ian McConnell
Business Editor
A University of Strathclyde spin-out company which provides software that connects renewable energy resources to the electricity grid is being acquired by Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.
The price being paid for Glasgow-based Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS), which has Scottish Equity Partners’ Environmental Energies Fund, Scottish Enterprise and the University of Strathclyde as its principal shareholders, was not disclosed.
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SGS employs 75 staff, 55 of them in Glasgow. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation executive Noriyuki Takazawa noted the university spin-out’s offerings had “helped power utilities in Europe and North America install, manage and optimise renewable energy resources”.
A spokeswoman for SGS told The Herald: “All employees will continue to work for Smarter Grid Solutions but the company will become a group/subsidiary company of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.”
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SGS will maintain its operations in Glasgow and report to Mitsubishi Electric Corporation’s Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc subsidiary. The Scottish firm provides distributed energy resources management software for power distribution utilities and DER operators. SGS flagged its offering of “highly flexible, scalable controls solutions allowing users to integrate DER for capacity management, flexible interconnection, virtual power plants, microgrids, fleet energy asset operations and energy as a service”.
Brian Heery, president of Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc, said: “We are very excited to bring SGS into Mitsubishi Electric. They are committed to the mission of decarbonising electric power production and have spent the last decade developing world-class products and processes. We look forward to marrying their products with our suite of grid-control products to help our customers respond to changes and still get the best performance from their electric grids.”
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