AES Corporation


The AES Corporation is a Fortune 500 company that generates and distributes electrical power. AES is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, and is one of the world's leading power companies, generating and distributing electric power in 15 countries and employing 10,500 people worldwide.

History

The company was founded on January 28, 1981, as Applied Energy Services by Roger Sant and Dennis Bakke, two appointees of the Federal Energy Administration under president Richard Nixon. The company was initially a consulting firm; it became AES Corporation, which went public in 1991. Sant was chairman, CEO, and president and Bakke was executive vice president until assuming the position of president in 1987. Bakke would later become the company's CEO in 1994, serving for 8 years until his resignation in 2002, in the midst of a liquidity crisis that followed the collapse of the energy giant Enron. Sant remained as executive chairman until 2003 and as a member of the board until 2006. Paul Hanrahan was appointed President and CEO and served for 10 years, overseeing the stabilization of the company. In 2012, Hanrahan resigned, his position as President and CEO of the company succeeded by Andres Gluski. AS CEO, Gluski has implemented a strategy of reducing the number of countries in which AES does business, from 28 to 16, for the purpose of consolidating operations and reducing costs. Additionally, he also began a program of reducing the company's total carbon emission intensity.
Bakke and Sant oversaw much of AES's initial global expansion, building power plants in 29 countries and expanding its staff from 1,400 to 32,000 employees, and also instilled a system of decentralized management that emphasized social responsibility above profit. In recent years, AES has also signaled a commitment to providing their consumers and clients with renewable forms of energy, and their operations across the world have increasingly focused on the construction, and provision of solar and wind based energy storage systems.
AES acquired the assets of Indianapolis Power & Light, Ipalco, in 2000.
AES acquired the Chilean-based subsidiary Gener in 2000.
AES acquired DPL Inc. known as Dayton Power & Light in 2011.
In fiscal 2015 AES's total revenue was $15 billion.
In 2018, AES acquired the subsidiary sPower.

Major projects

Fluence

Launched during January 2018, Fluence is a joint venture between AES Energy Storage and Siemens that is focused on the development of, and expansion of energy storage technologies and services. Chaired by former AES vice-president for energy storage platforms Stephen Coughlin, and headquartered in Washington D.C., Fluence aims to implement AES's extensive research into the potential of lithium-ion powered energy sources by relying upon Siemens' expansive global presence in the industrial sector; for the purpose of addressing the rapidly rising demand for clean energy technologies. Fluence has been deployed in 16 countries, with major projects including the following:
  1. The creation of a new 40 megawatt storage facility on behalf of San Diego Gas & Electric's new 40 MW storage facility.
  2. Three solar powered projects throughout Arizona and two 10 MW projects in the Dominican Republic.
  3. The installation of six storage projects across Germany that will provide grid stabilization.
  4. The construction of a hybrid microgrid on the Mediterranean Island of Ventotene. Said microgrid will be developed as per an agreement between Fluence and the Italian energy utility Enel, and will combine diesel generators with renewables in order to aid in the efforts to reduce carbon costs and emissions. The key technology platforms developed by Fluence include the following.

    Key Fluence technologies

Fluence is expected to employ three different types of grid technology.
i):SIESTORAGE: An electrical energy storage system fueled predominantly by wind and solar energy. Siestorage relies upon the closed-loop controls and pulse modulation built into its semiconductors, in order to provide consumers with increased dependability.
ii):Advancion: A storage system that is made up of several small, modular nodes and powered by Lithium ion batteries, which enables the Advancion energy store system to provide consumers with a heightened degree of consistency in performance.
iii): Sunflux Energy: Announced in January 2018, Sunflex was developed for the purpose of expanding upon the possibilities offered by photovoltaic solar energy. This technology is built to capture energy during peak solar hours in order to expand energy delivery.
Projected ventures using Fluence technologies
Presently, the biggest project in Fluence's portfolio is a 100–400 Mwh "power center energy storage project" for Southern California Edison. This system will be housed within AES's power center in Los Alamitos, California.
During January 2018, the subsidiary AES India, working in partnership with Mitsubishi, commenced construction of a 10 MW energy storage solution that will be located in Rohini. This storage solution, which shall operate off Fluence's Advancion technology, is projected to be the first utility-scale system to be in India.

sPower

Headquartered in Salt Lake City and acquired from Fir Tree Partners Inc in a purchase during 2017, as part of a joint acquisition with Alberta Investment Management Corporation. Spower is one of the largest operators and developers of utility-scale solar in the United States; operating across 11 states, and with particular focus on the states of California and North Carolina. Spower's current operating portfolio includes 1.3 GW worth of solar and wind based properties, in addition to over 10,000 MW worth of projects that are in the developmental stage.

Investment in drone technologies

As part of an effort by AES to protect its employees from industry hazards and to improve workplace safety, the company announced a partnership with the nation's leading drone provider, Measure, to inspect their various energy infrastructures sites across 17 countries.

Major properties and subsidiaries

Properties and subsidiaries in North America

Based in Argentina

Based in United Kingdom

Properties and subsidiaries in the Middle East

Based in Jordan
Based in Kazakhstan
Based in the Philippines