BPLG Announces Strategic Alliance with SAIC

SAIC leads financing round, investing in BPL Global.

PITTSBURGH, PA, October 08, 2009 –BPL Global^®, Ltd. (BPLG), a smart grid technology company, today announced a strategic alliance with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) [NYSE: SAI], a scientific, engineering, and technology applications company, to pursue business development opportunities in North America and around the world in the smart grid sector. As part of this alliance, SAIC has a $10 million minority stake in BPLG, leading BPLG’s latest round of financing to capitalize the company in anticipation of the increase in smart grid spending by the electric utility industry to modernize electrical networks. The combination of SAIC, a Fortune 500 company, and BPLG brings together world‐class capabilities to support electric utilities to deploy leading smart grid solutions, transforming energy efficiency and reliability. The financing total is $22 million with SAIC’s investment plus $12 million coming from Cross Atlantic Capital Partners and existing BPLG shareholders including, El Dorado Investment Company, Al-Deera Holding Co., K.S.C.C., and Novitas Capital.

“This investment and our strategic alliance with BPLG represent further strides in SAIC’s strategy to provide life-cycle capabilities to the rapidly evolving power industry, following our recent acquisition of R.W. Beck Group, Inc.,” said J.T. Grumski, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager. “We look forward to integrating a number of SAIC’s capabilities into the Power SG^® platform and further expanding our support to this growing market.” 

Stimulus spending in a number of countries is focused on modernizing the electric grid. As a result of this infusion of capital, electric utilities are mobilizing to implement large scale smart grid projects to improve efficiency and reliability while meeting their financial and environmental objectives. Based on extensive service to electric utilities, and a strong track record of supporting complex projects in defense and other industries, SAIC has positioned itself as a leading systems integrator to the electric industry with respect to planning, designing and deploying smart grid initiatives. BPLG has developed an integrated smart grid solution from the substation through customer premises providing electric utilities with transformational technology to modernize electrical networks. The combination of SAIC and BPLG brings world‐class capabilities to electric utility executives to design, deploy and manage large-scale smart grid projects.

SAIC and BPLG have worked with electric utilities to submit grant proposals to DOE in response to demonstration and investment grant opportunities in the smart grid.

“We are at an inflection point for the smart grid industry,” said Keith Schaefer, CEO of BPL Global. “Stimulus funding in the US and countries around the world has significantly increased the number and size of grid modernization projects. SAIC, with a rich legacy of innovation and strong presence in the electric utility industry, is well positioned to contribute to the development and deployment of modern grid technology on a global scale.” 

Working together, SAIC and BPLG will focus on addressing the entire life cycle of utility customer needs through the intelligent transformation of electrical network and utility operations. From strategy consulting to large scale solution deployment, SAIC and BPLG will market a holistic approach to addressing energy, environment, infrastructure and sustainability challenges. The alliance couples SAIC’s expertise in utility engineering, asset consulting, program management, systems integration, design/build, renewable energy, cybersecurity, data analytics, and climate science with BPLG’s smart grid technologies. BPLG’s technologies include the Power SG^® solution suite, a service-oriented architecture based integration platform supporting solutions that address the energy delivery value chain from the substation through customer premises. BPLG’s Power SG^® solutions help utilities improve reliability, integrate distributed energy resources, enhance demand management capabilities, monitor critical grid assets, and provide real-time control.

Also view SAIC Release

About BPL Global
BPL Global, Ltd. (BPLG) is a smart grid technology company dedicated to leading the transformation of energy efficiency and reliability. The company provides software solutions and services to electric utilities and energy service companies enabling an intelligent grid to more efficiently manage demand, integrate distributed energy resources, improve service reliability, and optimize cost and capital productivity. BPL Global partners with local utilities, Internet service providers, equipment suppliers and financiers to create end-to-end solutions integrating the best in software, communications, hardware and managed services to aggressively deploy smart grid solutions around the world. Part of the clean technology sector of the electric utility industry, our applications provide the critical foundation for a coordinated, intelligent grid to deliver energy more efficiently and reliably for a greener environment.