Toshiba Acquires Consert Intelligent Solution Provider for Smart Grid Deployments
Toshiba Corporation has acquired privately-held Consert Inc., an intelligent energy management company that converts electric consumption in homes and small businesses into cost-effective clean sources of capacity and energy reserves for utilities. The purchase makes Consert a Toshiba subsidiary that will enhance Toshiba Group's smart community business in the United States. Operations in North America will be integrated with Landis+Gyr, a Toshiba Group company.
Consert, through its Virtual Peak Plant™ (VPP) offering, is able to deliver a fully-integrated, intelligent load management solution for utilities. VPP provides improved forecasting and capacity management, real-time outage management information, remote service connections and significantly improves customer service as well as end-consumer communications and energy efficiency.
"Consert is an ideal fit with Toshiba, a global leader in power generation, and the acquisition will add a new level of technology to our smart community business," said Takeshi Yokota, Toshiba Corporation Executive Officer and Corporate Vice President. "Smart community is a fundamental solution that includes energy management on both the demand and supply sides, along with management of transportation, water and in the medical field. Consert adds significantly to our smart community portfolio and advances our ability to propose industry-leading solutions in power supply and demand. We are now better positioned to support major utilities in generating and delivering stable power supply and to ensure end-user environments that optimize energy use and maximize energy savings."
"We are pleased to be integrating the business and employees of Consert into the Landis+Gyr America's team, while their know-how and technology will be used throughout Toshiba—and in particular within the Smart Community Division," commented Richard Mora, Landis+Gyr's President and CEO for the Americas region. "We see the addition of the VPP as an important extension of our current offering and our first true demand response platform. Customer interest in this solution, allowing their consumers to manage energy better, is extremely high."
Roy Moore, Consert's Co-founder and Chief Development Officer added, "This step by Toshiba and Landis+Gyr is a huge milestone for our employees, partners and owners. It validates what our customers already know about the VPP—it is a solution designed to create and leverage a smarter grid."
