ConEdison Solutions (White Plains, New York, U.S.) has acquired Custom Energy Services, LLC (Overland Park, Kansas, U.S.), an energy services company serving a national portfolio of clients. ConEdison Solutions is an energy services company owned by the holding company Consolidated Edison Inc.

Jorge Lopez, CEO and president of ConEdison Solutions, says that he's seeing a resurgence on the energy services side. “We are one of the few who decided to hold on [to our energy service business] because we felt it was both complementary to our retail commodity business, but that it also was where the business was going in the future.”

Custom Energy provides energy-efficiency services to clients throughout the United States using guaranteed performance contracts. Such contracts leverage energy savings from energy-efficient infrastructure improvements to cover project installation costs over set periods of time. The company also provides energy consulting for demand-side and supply-side services, and provides on-site power, co-generation and renewable energy technologies.

With ConEdison Solutions' May 1, 2008, acquisition of Custom Energy Services, and its acquisition of energy services and engineering firm BGA Inc. (Tampa, Florida, U.S.) in May 2007, ConEdison Solutions is well positioned for the growing trend of green solutions, says Lopez. The government and government-like businesses are already moving forward with their energy cost reduction; now the commercial market seems to be moving toward that as well, notes Lopez. “Every time energy increases by a mil, it expands the potential for energy efficiency greatly,” Lopez says.

The acquisitions allow ConEdison Solutions to expand its reach, growing it from a regional to a national base. The company maintains offices in eight states. “Our objective is to build a national energy services company,” Lopez says. According to him, this will enable the company to be more effective and to launch innovative offers, such as with renewable and solar technologies.

The company has been a holder of energy-savings government contracts, but through these two acquisitions, it now reaches state and local markets as well as the schools market. Custom Energy is complementary to ConEdison Solutions' current business. “There wasn't a lot of overlap in the contracts they held and the territory they were covering,” Lopez says. With the BGA acquisition, ConEdison Solutions is the provider of energy-efficiency services at properties nationwide for the U.S.'s largest owner of retail real estate, Simon Property Group.