Siemens AG and The AES Corporation have announced an agreement to form a new global energy storage technology and services company under the name Fluence.

The joint venture will bring together AES’ 10 years of industry-defining experience deploying energy storage in seven countries with over a century of Siemens’ energy technology leadership and its global sales presence in more than 160 countries, said a statement.

Combining the proven AES Advancion and Siemens Siestorage energy storage platforms with expanded services, Fluence will offer customers a wider variety of options to meet the challenges of a rapidly transforming energy landscape, it said.

The company will empower customers around the world to better navigate the fragmented but rapidly growing energy storage sector and meet their pressing needs for scalable, flexible, and cost-competitive energy storage solutions.

Siemens and AES will have joint control of the company with each holding a 50 percent stake. Fluence’s global headquarters will be located in the Washington, DC area with additional offices located in Erlangen, Germany and select cities worldwide. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2017, subject to regulatory and other approvals.

Fluence will operate independently of its parent companies, combining the robust capabilities and expertise from Siemens’ battery-based energy storage solutions group under the Energy Management division with AES’ subsidiary, AES Energy Storage

AES and Siemens are currently ranked among the leading energy storage integrators worldwide by Navigant Research. Together, the two companies have deployed or have been awarded 48 projects totaling 463 MW of battery-based energy storage across 13 countries, including the world’s largest lithium-ion battery-based energy storage project near San Diego, California.

“As the energy storage market expands, customers face the challenge of finding a trusted technology partner with an appropriate portfolio and a profound knowledge of the power sector. Fluence will fill this major gap in the market. With the global reach of an experienced international sales force as well as Siemens’ leading technology platform Siestorage at its disposal, Fluence will be perfectly equipped to serve this very interesting market,” said Ralf Christian, CEO of Siemens’ Energy Management Division.

“Over the past ten years, AES has become a global leader in utility-scale, battery-based energy storage. Today AES’ Advancion platform is present in seven countries with more than 200 MW of energy storage deployed, including the largest installed system of its kind in the world,” said Andrés Gluski, AES president and CEO. “Partnering with Siemens to form Fluence will offer both large and small customers the full gamut of proven, state-of-the-art energy storage solutions in over 160 countries. This will accelerate the integration of renewables into the energy network of tomorrow.”

The grid-connected energy storage sector is expected to expand from a total installed capacity of three gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2016 to 28 GW by 2022 according to IHS Markit, which is equivalent to the power used by 18.6 million households. By incorporating energy storage across the electric power network, utilities and communities around the world will optimize their infrastructure investments, increase network flexibility and resiliency, and accelerate cost-effective integration of renewable electricity generation. –TradeArabia News Service