INTERVIEW: Convergent to continue scaling in 2022 as it builds out solar + storage pipeline

Convergent Energy + Power is expected to continue scaling its team in 2022 after adding 20 new hires in 2021, according to Chief Strategy Officer Mariko McDonagh Meier in an interview with NPM.

The recent hires include Katie Guerry, Senior VP of Government and Regulatory Affairs, who started with the company in November after seven years at Enel and its predecessor companies, while Kevin Borden will join shortly as its Senior VP of Product, also from Enel.

The New York-based company was founded in 2011 as an IPP focused on battery storage development for standalone properties as well as co-located solar-plus-storage. Convergent began to scale more rapidly after private equity firm Energy Capital Partners (ECP) acquired the company in July 2019.

Convergent now has 250 MW/500 MWh in projects under development, in construction and/or operational in 40 states. The company contracts into multiple end-markets ranging from C&I, Municipals and Co-ops and Community solar + storage.

These projects are mostly in ISO New England, PJM and ERCOT, though Convergent also has projects under way in New York and California.

“Though these markets are structured differently, we see real opportunities to capture the unique value that storage brings to the grid in each of them,” said McDonagh Meier.

Its diverse interests range from reaching an agreement to supply over 75 Tops Friendly Market in upstate New York with electricity from community solar-plus-storage projects to developing energy storage system to support Potomac Edison Company. The community solar-plus-storage projects supporting Tops are expected to come online in 2022.

Separately, Convergent also has been in the process of seeking bidders to contract for its 10 MW/40 MWh Henrietta D. Energy Storage project in Kings County, California for either resource adequacy (RA) or a toll contract structure.

The project was originally selected by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) as part of its 75 MW energy storage solicitation but has since been released from its obligations under the contract. An update on this process is expected shortly, according to a Convergent spokesperson.*

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers earlier this month.