The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has committed $35 million of debt finance towards the expansion of a joint venture that will support smart meters.
The CEFC has committed towards the expansion of intelliHUB – a joint venture between Pacific Equity Partners and global smart meter leader Landis+Gyr that is acquiring Acumen, Origin Energy’s $267 million smart meter business unit.
The new intelliHUB joint venture will be a leading Australian provider of smart meter solutions, servicing Australian energy retailers and consumers.
The Acumen business included the existing management and servicing of an already deployed 170,000m and the combined business has future, long-term contracts with Origin Energy and other retailers, that will see it rollout and manage more than 1 million smart meters across Australia and New Zealand.
CEFC CEO, Ian Learmonth, said the smart meters would help people to better understand options such as photovoltaic solar.
“Smart meters give energy consumers better control over their energy consumption, which is essential for lowering carbon emissions. They also give consumers the ability to better understand where and how they can benefit from behind-the-meter solar pv and energy storage solutions,
“Electricity is one of the largest sources of emissions for Australia. It’s essential that we address this by acting right across the energy market.
“This includes investing in more renewable energy as well as implementing a range of proven measures to lower day-to-day energy consumption. We see smart metering as an essential part of an integrated clean energy future and we’re very excited to be part of this market evolution.” Mr Learmonth said.
The CEFC investment is part of a debt finance package to support both the Acumen acquisition and intelliHUB’s growth plans for the business.
