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BPL Global: A Nimble Firm with a Story to Tell
By
May 30, 2009 - 11:45:53 AM

www.bplglobal.net

Established: 2004

Headquarters: Pittsburgh, PA

President, CEO: Keith Schaefer

CFO: Steven M. Barto

CTO: Jeff Tolnar

Employees: 130

Ownership: October ’09, SAIC’s $10 million stake in addition to prior investments from venture capital firms Al-Deera Co., Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, DQE Communications Network Services, IFA Group, Kuwait Holding Co., Morgan Stanley, Novitas Capital, Nth Power LLC, Perseus LLC, Siemens VC, SZAR Partners LLC ( Founders), and Tollgrade Communications.

Products

Power SG^®Foundation platform:

· Power SG Integrated DER

· Power SG Network Monitoring & Management

· Power SG C&I Demand Management

· Power SG Residential Demand Management

· Building Efficiency Management Solutions - EasyGreen

· Energy Asset Management Equipment

· Power SG Rapid Fault Locator

· Substation Automation Equipment

· Transformer Monitoring

· Broadband Solutions

In the Field

· In collaboration with multiple electric utilities, awarded Smart Grid Investment Grants (SGIG) from the DOE as part of the ARRA funding announcements totaling more than $800M – October, 2009

· Corning Cable Systems, part of Corning Incorporated's (NYSE: GLW) and BPLG teamed up to promote building efficiency management solutions to utilities and carriers deploying fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) solutions – September 2009

· Deployed its Power SG® integrated water and energy management solution at South San Joaquin Irrigation District (SSJID) in Manteca, CA – Spring 2009

Read more

Smart Grid News:

BPL Global: Can Global Ambitions Hurt a Small Company?

BPL Global adds to its Smart Grid portfolio with transformer monitoring

In Brief: BPL Global

BPL Global's (BPLG) software and network communications platform allows utilities to manage energy resources from the substation to customer premises. Its demand management solution integrates software, hardware and services for non‐critical load operations and structure management. With the system, electric utilities are able to directly control dispatchable load with predictable and verifiable management of individual loads.

Strengths

BPLG is a first mover in offering a system to manage distributed energy resources, including renewable generation, distributed generation, energy storage and load.

On a worldwide basis, the company has been selective in choosing people with the experience, knowledge, and connections in many regions of the globe. CEO Keith Schaefer has been in senior management positions for the last 24 years, working with more than ten start-ups, two buyouts, two IPO’s, and nine sales – including a Global 500 and Fortune 100 companies.

The company is agile and benefits from good partnerships:

· When BPLG discovered that broadband over powerline is plagued by a dysfunctional regulatory environment, it looked for other directions that can be developed more quickly. By acquiring Serveron, maker of innovative transformer monitoring products, BPL Global broadened its offerings with power transformer bushing monitoring. The long-term total solution for utilities will include distribution automation on the same platform.

· Announced January, 2010, BPLG will team with Siemens to integrate and resell BPLG load management and distributed energy resource management solutions. Siemens is integrating BPLG Smart Grid solutions with Siemens’ distribution automation applications, including its distribution management system (DMS), SCADA and substation automation solutions.

· In October, 2009, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) took a $10 million minority stake in BPLG. SAIC offers utility engineering, systems integration, asset and program management solutions. The duo creates solutions covering the entire life cycle of utility operations. The alliance offers BPLG entrance to SAIC’s lucrative relationships with various U. S. government agencies including the Office of Environmental Information, a unit of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and others.

Challenges

Risks are that they may be stretched thin in several ways. BPLG is a small company that operates virtually. That’s hard enough, but they are doing business in far-flung corners of the world, including Africa, China, Brazil and the Middle East. That adds a layer of cost and complication.

Our View

With its new relationships, BPLG may be finding some much-needed traction in worldwide markets through integration of its products into more complete utility solutions.

BPL Global began life as a provider of broadband over powerline (the BPL in its name). When it became evident that BPL suffered from significant technical issues, the firm shifted strategies. It tweaked its platform to run over virtually any communications pipeline and began to amass a collection of applications for energy management and distribution automation.

BPLG has good vision and some of the industry’s smartest people. They understand that the Smart Grid will extend end-to-end from generation through delivery and all the way into the customer premise. They believe in the platform approach.

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