ISA CAPITAL acquires UK power aggregator and launches VPS brand - Virtual Power Solutions

With this operation, the company will be an inescapable reference of the energy sector with a wide range of services and competences for its Customers in the Iberian Peninsula and the United Kingdom

Virtual Power Solutions (VPS), a specialist in active energy management solutions, started operations in June 2015 as a result of the combination of operations between Stor Generation and ISA Energy. VPS's mission is to build and operate VPPs (Virtual Power Plants) on a European scale starting its activity in the United Kingdom and Iberian Peninsula where it already has more than 10,000 points monitored and around 20MW under management.

Research and Development (R&D) is one of the different pillars that enabled VPS to develop knowledge and experience in topics such as Internet of Things (IoT), developing hardware and software solutions for the domestic and corporate market, cloud-based M2M communication platforms and mobile services for intelligent home and city applications, acquiring and processing millions of data daily to provide customers with valuable information from their data centre worldwide.

On the other hand, as value proposition basis, VPS has developed Energy Savings as a Service (ESaaS) which combines a strong technological capability with a high quality customer service to provide its customers with energy savings as a service. This proposal, which guarantees its customers savings from zero, has already been applied in several market segments such as: banking institutions, hotels, hospitals, airports, universities, schools and other public, state or municipal buildings, as well as SMEs and consumers.

"R&D is one of the pillars we have strategically defined in order to ensure the company's growth. It was thanks to this process that we were able to develop knowledge and experience in accordance with the latest technological trends in the market, which is something that makes us extremely satisfied and proud", says José Basílio Simões, leader of the company in the Iberian Peninsula.

VPS and the future

VPS will grow at a rate of more than 100% a year to reach a value of more than € 33m by the end of 2018. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global energy efficiency market is worth € 245 billion per year and will continue to grow during the next few years, and also in Portugal the growth of investment in this area will be strongly leveraged with more than 1,500 million Euros of funds coming from PT2020, as it has been reported.

With the completion of this operation, VPS is prepared to respond to the most complex challenges of its customers in managing their energy needs. The company has under management more than 1500 consuming buildings in total more than 200GWh annually.

Another aspect that the company will give particular relevance is the establishment of partnerships that allow it to ensure continuous and sustainable growth. To this end it has developed a partnership agreement with ANESCO, the largest ESCO in the UK, and one of the 100 fastest growing companies in Europe since 2013.

"Establishing partnerships is a key element in ensuring the continuity and growth of any business. This, along with the other international investments that the company has been carrying out, are strategically done to meet the growth objectives that we have thought until the end of 2018, "concludes Basílio Simões.