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Goldman Sachs, Cleanhill Partners Acquire EPC Power

ENERGY: Poway-Based Company Poised for Rapid Growth

EPC Power Corp., maker of high-performance, utility scale smart inverters, has plugged into the grid of major financial investment.

The Poway-based EPC Power announced on Sept. 15 that the Sustainable Investing business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Cleanhill Partners acquired a majority stake in the company.

The strategic investment and comprehensive recapitalization positions EPC Power to expand its production of smart inverters for renewable energy and battery storage facilities needed for the worldwide transition to clean energy.

The investment does not include any changes to management or operations.

Devin Dilley
CEO
EPC Power Corp.

“No changes, except now we have a great partner to move alongside with us as a company as the energy storage sector grows,” said EPC Power CEO Devin Dilley. “Goldman and Cleanhill understood our mission in this sector, they’re passionate about the same things, so their intention was to invest in something they already believed in and could see the promise of. The foundation of our technology, the direction of the entire energy storage sector as a whole and the trajectory of our company brought everything into clear alignment.”

Another alignment for EPC Power is the recent Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, which among other provisions extends a first-ever tax credit to stand-alone energy storage, creating a significant financial incentive for adopting EPC Power’s inverters and other technologies.

Although the deal with Goldman and Cleanhill was underway before the signing of the IRA, the new law has increased demand for EPC Power inverters.  “We’ve been fielding calls all hours of the day ever since the bill was passed,” said Allan Abela, chief commercial officer at EPC Power.

Allan Abela
EVP and Chief Commercial Officer
EPC Power Corp.

Trajectory of Growth

Alexander Mass, managing director of Goldman Sachs Asset Management said EPC is “uniquely positioned” to be a critical player in renewable and energy storage and with the new capital will continue a trajectory of rapid growth in the sector.

Alexander Mass
Managing Director
Goldman Sachs Asset Management

“As the only scaled supplier of smart inverters that are designed, engineered and 100% manufactured in the U.S., EPC Power is a natural continuation of our thematic investment activity in this space, in partnership with Cleanhill Partners and EPC management,” he said.

Energy storage installations globally are projected to multiply 20 times by the end of 2030 compared to the end of 2020, according to BloombergNEF’s 2021 Global Energy Storage Outlook.

The U.S. is currently the world’s biggest market for energy storage.

EPC Power’s smart inverters enable the buildout of battery storage required to support the proliferation of renewable energy generation. Smart inverters are powered by advanced software and work dynamically with the grid to increase resilience, reliability, safety and security.

Ash Upadhyaya
Managing Partner
Cleanhill Partners

“In an exploding market of cleantech innovators, EPC Power stands out for its industry-leading technology, which directly supports the renewable energy transition while preserving grid reliability and performance,” commented Rakesh Wilson and Ash Upadhyaya, managing partners at Cleanhill Partners.

Cleanhill first invested in EPC Power in 2021 when it underwrote a credit facility to support its growth. Since then, the firm has also provided counsel on operational matters and facilitated strategic partnerships to help the company achieve rapid scale.

Rakesh Wilson
Managing Partner
Cleanhill Partners

“As prior investors in EPC Power, we have every confidence that the company will meet its ambitious and environmentally critical objectives and we are excited to partner with Goldman Sachs for the next stage of EPC Power’s growth,” the partners stated.

EPC Power’s next stage of growth is a second production facility in Simpsonville, South Carolina, slated to open by the end of this year that will expand the company’s production capacity. The new facility was necessary, Dilley said, because of EPC Power’s growing business in European markets and shipping the large inverter systems from Poway is “costly.”

“This gives us a bicoastal approach to have a more global reach,” he said.

To support its growing customer base in Europe, EPC Power also maintains an engineering and sales office in Helsinki, Finland.

EPC Power Corp. 
Founded: 2010
CEO: Devin Dilley
Headquarters: Poway
Business: Maker of smart power inverters for solar and energy storage facilities
Employees: 180 worldwide
Website: www.epcpower.com
Notable: To date, EPC Power has sold more than two gigawatts of smart inverters worldwide.

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