DYERSBURG, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ERMCO, a leading manufacturer of distribution transformers and transformer components, announced today a definitive agreement to acquire GridBridge Corporation, a privately held, leading power delivery systems company headquartered in Raleigh, NC. GridBridge’s innovative Energy Router Platform combined with ERMCO’s half a century manufacturing expertise make the combined company a potent leader in the rapidly evolving electricity distribution market. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Teaming up with GridBridge was a strategic decision prompted by increasing customer requests for advanced power management capability,” said Bill Reffert, President and CEO of ERMCO. “GridBridge’s Grid Energy Router (GER) has proven it can solve grid related problems our customers are asking for help with now. Equally attractive is that their product pipeline and power electronics expertise enables us to continue to support customers over time as they seek to manage distributed generation and storage, while also improving efficiency and reliability.”
GridBridge’s Energy Router Platform will serve as the basis for a new division focused on providing utility and commercial customers with a set of innovative power delivery solutions. These products will permit them to handle increasingly complex electrical distribution problems. In particular, they will support electrical distribution grid modernization by empowering customers to integrate renewable generation and energy storage, significantly increase network efficiency and improve overall reliability and increase resilience.
“ERMCO is the perfect partner for us to broaden our impact,” added GridBridge’s CEO, Chad Eckhardt. “In a short period our team has demonstrated it can successfully transform our innovative R&D into viable products at the grid edge. As a combined entity, with access to ERMCO’s manufacturing capability, financial resources and market expertise, we can scale quickly to deliver a wider set of solutions to our customers.
“Combining the traditional role of the transformer with the additional functionality of GridBridge’s power electronics technology empowers us to deliver new capabilities to our customers,” continued Reffert. “ERMCO has been a superior transformer supplier to utilities and commercial power users since the 1970’s in a market that changed very little. Working with GridBridge over the past year, seeing what their products can do in the field, recognizing that they have an extremely talented team and now knowing that we can confidently meet customer demand for this functionality is exciting for our company.”
Post-merger, GridBridge will remain in North Carolina and operate under its name as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ERMCO, with Eckhardt serving as President. Bill Reffert will continue as President and CEO for ERMCO, overseeing this new subsidiary.
About ERMCO
ERMCO (Electric Research and Manufacturing Cooperative, Inc.) is headquartered in Dyersburg, Tennessee, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AECI), Little Rock, Arkansas. ERMCO was founded in 1964 and is one of the largest producers of oil filled distribution transformers and transformer components in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.ermco-eci.com.
About GridBridge
Since its founding in 2012, GridBridge has partnered with the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to develop breakthrough power delivery systems for a range of vital worldwide applications. Combining years of research in advanced electronics with innovative software, GridBridge’s platform-based products give customers unprecedented electric power delivery versatility and dependability. For more information visit http://www.grid-bridge.com.