SEPA, SGIP consummate marriage

After announcing their engagement in February, the Smart Electric Power Alliance and SGIP completed their merger today, providing a one-stop shop for utilities and distributed energy providers to collaborate on a clean energy future.

April 3, 2017 Frank Andorka

The marriage between the Smart Electric Power Association and SGIP, who announced their engagement in January, was consummated this morning.

It’s always nice to see that couple you always knew were destined to marry finally reach the altar.

Such time has come for the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and SGIP, after announcing their engagement in January. SGIP will take SEPA’s brand and organization.

The new organization hopes to bridge the oft-contentious chasm between utilities and distributed energy resources (DER) providers. Wedding SEPA’s focus on big picture issues like market research and events to SGIP’s technical depth will allow utilities and DERs to find the information they need to talk about the issues important to both groups as it relates to solar power.

The leaders of the groups hope the ease of the new information exchange will foster greater understanding between utilities and DERs, which will help the solar revolution to continue its expansion to new markets.

“With the completion of this merger, we are adding nearly 80 new member organizations to our existing base of more than 1,000 members,” said SEPA President and CEO Julia Hamm. “Within SEPA’s mission of facilitating the electric power sector’s smart transition to clean energy future, integrating SGIP’s technical knowledge is another way to serve all of our members.”

Sharon Allan, former CEO and president of SGIP, will join SEPA as its chief innovation officer. Both Hamm and Allan said they are working harcd to integrate the two organizations as smoothly as possible. Although SGIP’s staff have already taken new positions at SEPA, full integration of the groups won’t be completed until the end of the year.

“I’m excited to join SEPA expect the combined organization will be able to deliver even greater value to our members and the entire electric power industry,” Allan said.

Members of the solar industry will be able to see what the combined efforts of SEPA will be at the Grid Evolution Summit – A National Town Meeting on July 25 – 27 in Washington D.C.

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