Dive Brief:

• A new entrant into the utility space has purchased GridPoint, a supplier of data-driven energy management solutions, in a first strategic step aimed at revamping the utility space, Greentech Media reports. 
• Twenty First Century Utilities LLC, which formed earlier this year, has plans to purchase a pair of regulated utilities with a goal of growing the use of clean, innovative demand management resources and renewable power.
• TFC sees its business model as a "commercial accelerator" that will speed the acceptance of clean energy technologies through market use and acceptance.

Dive Insight:

Larry Kellerman, who Argus describes as a "power industry innovator," launched TFC earlier this year. While his investing background is largely in merchant generation, Twenty First Century Utilities marks a new direction: Pushing the adoption of clean energy and demand management strategies.

In the company's first acquisition, it has now purchased energy data company GridPoint in a move TFC said represents its commitment to behind the meter technologies.

"Mass adoption of customer controlled energy saving technologies like GridPoint’s, as well as clean energy producing technologies at the point of consumption, will alter the entire electric supply and delivery landscape to provide substantial economic and environmental benefits," Kellerman said in a statement announcing the deal. GridPoint customers, he explained, have realized verified energy savings of over a $250 million.

In May, Kellerman told Argus the company was raising money to purchase one or two regulated utilities.

Peter Corsell, an entrepreneur and investor who helped launch TFC, said the company's business model "provides a commercial accelerator that will enable millions of customers to adopt the energy technologies they want in an affordable manner. ... It eliminates longstanding barriers for GridPoint and other behind the meter technologies and, for the first time in the electric utility industry, creates a practical path for achieving a sustainable energy future.”

In its statement, TFC said the acquisition would enable GridPoint to accelerate its long-term strategic plans and expand its services. GridPoint will continue to maintain its corporate brand, though it will operate as a subsidiary of TFC.