(Bloomberg) — Utilities will continue to play a vital role
in delivering power amid calls from clean-energy proponents
including Al Gore that consumers turn away from grid-based
power.
“The grid-defection piece is overblown,” John Carrington,
chief executive officer of Stem Inc., said Wednesday at the
Bloomberg New Energy Finance conference in New York. “The model
will change, but the utilities will always be there.”
Millbrae, California-based Stem produces batteries that
store power from the grid for use when demand rises. It also
sells software to manage those systems. Most customers lease the
technology.
Demand for alternatives to traditional grid-based power is
on the rise. Utilities in the U.S. Northeast stand to lose as
much as half of residential sales by 2030 as customers install
solar and battery-storage systems and generate their own power,
according to a report by the Rocky Mountain Institute.
Stem this week received a $12 million investment led by
Mitsui & Co. as part of a Series C round that may increase to
$30 million, Carrington said.
The company closed a $27 million Series B round that put
its total capital raise above $40 million, Carrington said in
January.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Doom in New York at
jdoom1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Jim Efstathiou Jr., Tina Davis