With latest acquisition, Budderfly moves from DERs to VPPs

The consolidation of the virtual power plant space continues — this time in the commercial and industrial sector. 

• The top line: The energy management company Budderfly acquired Sunverge Energy’s distributed energy resource management system, or DERMS, in a move that will effectively allow the company to easily create virtual power plants across its system. The energy-as-a-service company serves small- and medium-sized commercial facilities.
• The market grounding: This is the latest in a wave of VPP consolidations in the last year, as companies like Budderfly look to fill technology gaps and expand their addressable market. For instance, in a single week last December, Google announced the sale of Nest Renew to OhmConnect, and Schneider Electric also sold the VPP developer AutoGrid to Uplight. 
• The current take: Matt Casey, managing director of Latitude Intelligence, described this as a “great marriage” for Budderfly. “What Sunverge brings them is a platform to connect and manage all of these DERs they already have installed at customer sites,” he said, “but more importantly, a platform that is established with and already operating as a VPP provider for utilities and grid operators.” 

Founded in 2017, Budderfly offers a range of equipment including HVAC systems, solar solutions, and refrigeration controls and monitoring. The company is expanding its offerings to include battery storage, behind-the-meter solar, and electric vehicle charging for commercial and industrial customers. As Casey said, these are the “building blocks of a VPP,” and what was missing is the platform to connect those assets.

The company will use the DERMS to aggregate DERs across its sites. Budderfly will ultimately have control of the full system — from installation to billing — and is accordingly characterizing their plan as an “end-to-end VPP.”

Al Subbloie, Budderfly’s founder and CEO, said in a statement that this acquisition is a “natural progression” of the company’s model. The move opens new revenue streams for Budderfly in the broader utility and grid operator market that they can now work with directly.

“VPPs are crucial for capitalizing on the opportunities of the energy transition,” he said. “Through this acquisition, we are making this essential technology available to the middle market,” which comprises most U.S. businesses.

The company said it plans to enroll thousands of its customer sites into demand response programs in the next five years, and will onboard “several” utility customers in Arizona and Maryland, as well as in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. Former Sunverge employees will join Budderfly’s team.