Accenture acquires Bridge Energy Group

06 June 2019 Consulting.us

Management and technology consultancy Accenture has acquired Boston-based Bridge Energy Group, a provider of grid modernization, analytics, and security services to utilities in North America.

Utilities are turning to technological innovation to tackle industry challenges like new regulations, extreme weather, and distributed energy resources (DER) such as wind, solar, battery storage, and electric vehicles.

Boutique consultancy Bridge Energy Group helps utilities clients create, deploy, and manage solutions to the above challenges, with expertise across real-time operations, renewables integration, and grid analytics and security, among other areas.

The firm’s expert consultants help utility companies align IT investments with strategic goals, provide the backbone for ongoing operations, and deliver on strategy to achieve desired outcomes – such as greater operational efficiency.

Bridge has deep experience advising electric, water, and gas utilities; transmission and distribution utilities; and investor owned utilities, municipals, and co-ops. The firm was founded in 2004, and cracked Inc. Magazine’s “Inc. 5000” list of the fastest-growing American companies five times (2010-2014; 2016).

Accenture acquires Bridge Energy Group

Accenture has now acquired Bridge, absorbing the company into its utilities practice within the resources operating group. The deal strengthens Accenture’s end-to-end services for electric transmission and distribution service providers. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We are excited to welcome Bridge to Accenture to better help utilities drive transformation by creating new efficiencies for assets and operations while uncovering new revenue streams,” said Stephanie Jamison, a managing director at Accenture and leader of the transmission and distribution business.

The move builds on Accenture’s 2015 acquisition of Structure Group, a Houston-based provider of consulting and system integration services to energy and utility clients, with particular expertise in grid operations. The deal brought approximately 200 employees to Accenture’s resources operating group.

“Similar to our 2015 acquisition of the Structure Group, BRIDGE will help us meet growing demand from our utilities clients for evaluating and applying new and emerging technologies – including advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, the cloud, and blockchain – to develop the grid of the future,” Jamison added.

Commenting on the acquisition, Bridge CEO Hugo van Nispen said, “Joining forces with Accenture will provide the scale, career training, ecosystem, and other strengths that will further enable our employees to leverage their strong industry skills to achieve even greater success in serving clients and advancing their careers.

“It’s very exciting to jointly tackle our clients’ most complex challenges through innovation, especially for grid modernization, reliability and resiliency.”