Enel North America is an American company headquartered in Andover, MA, United States. One of the renewable energy operators in North America, it was formed as a subsidiary of the global utility Enel S.p.A. in 2000. It has operations in the United States and Canada through its renewables and energy services businesses, with a portfolio including over 9.6 GW of renewable capacity, 160,000 EV charging stations, 4.7 GW of demand response capacity and 14 utility-scale battery energy storage systems, totaling 1,416 MWh of capacity under construction or in operation. It serves a customer base of over 4,500 businesses, utilities, and cities in North America.
History
2000–2015: Establishment in North America and Renewable Energy Growth In December 2000, Enel Group entered the US market and acquired the American renewable energy producer CHI Energy, taking over a portfolio of 254 MW of hydro energy In 2003, CHI Energy officially changed its name to Enel North America Inc.
With the creation of Enel Green Power – the business line founded in 2008 and dedicated to developing, building, operating and selling renewable energy – the company expanded its portfolio in North America to 570 MW, including biomass, wind and geothermal energy. Also in 2008, Enel Green Power announced the launching of its first wind and solar projects in the United States, namely the Snyder wind farm in Texas, the Minnesota Wind farm in Minnesota, the Smoky Hills wind farm in Kansas, and the Sheldon Springs solar farm in Vermont.
In 2010, the Group extended its presence in North America with its first renewable energy project in Canada. As of today, it operates three wind facilities based in Alberta, with a total clean energy capacity of 210 MW.
2015–2017: Hybrid Plant Innovation and PPAs In 2015, Enel developed Stillwater, the first hybrid plant in the world to combine geothermal, solar photovoltaic and solar thermal energy. Located in Churchill County, Nevada, it consists of a 33 MW geothermal plant, a 26 MWdc photovoltaic solar plant, a 27 MWdc photovoltaic solar plant, and a 2 MW solar thermal plant. Stillwater combines the continuous generating capacity of medium enthalpy, binary cycle geothermal power with solar photovoltaic and solar thermal sources.
In 2016, with the completion of Kansas's 400 MW Cimarron Bend wind farm, Enel Green Power reached 3 GW of renewable capacity across North America. 2016 was also the year of Enel Green Power's first power purchase agreement (PPA), which was signed with Google with the entry into service of the first 200 MW of the facility. A second 200-MW PPA was signed with the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities (BPU), which is a not-for-profit public utility. In 2016, Enel North America also started the Cove Fort hybrid plant in Utah, the world's first large scale power generation facility combining geothermal and hydropower technologies.
2017–2019: Expansion into Advanced Energy Services and Electric Vehicle Infrastructure In 2017, Enel inaugurated its new North American headquarters in Andover, Massachusetts. The headquarters’ construction and design included a carpet made from recycled materials, electric vehicle charging stations, low-flow water fixtures, LED lighting, and a recycling and composting program. Also in 2017, the company opened a trading business line now known as Energy and Commodity Management. In the same year, Enel acquired Demand Energy Networks (a developer and operator of energy storage systems and software), eMotorWerks (a company operating a network of electric vehicle charging ports and supplies, charging stations known as JuiceBox) and EnerNOC (a demand response provider and a player in energy software). In October 2018, these companies were integrated as Enel X, Enel's business line dedicated to the development of products and digital solutions for cities, homes, industries, and electric mobility.
In 2018, the American Wind Energy Association named Enel Green Power as the fastest-growing wind operator. The company also signed clean energy contracts with large corporations including Anheuser-Busch, Kohler, Facebook, Adobe, Starbucks, Bloomberg LP, and General Motors. In the same year, it announced the deployment of a 1-MWh lithium-ion battery storage system in Canada for Ontario-based retail apple orchard Algoma Orchards.
In 2019, Enel Green Power completed the acquisition of Tradewind Energy – a US greenfield renewables developer – adding a 7 GW pipeline of wind, solar and storage facilities. Also in 2019, Anheuser Busch aired a Super Bowl ad describing the company's commitment to brew all Budweiser products in the US with wind energy, a result of a power purchase agreement with Enel. Enel also opened a new Innovation Hub in Boston at Greentown Labs, the largest cleantech startup incubator in the US.
2019–present: Reorganizing as Enel North America
After several years operating only through separate business lines – Enel Green Power North America and Enel X North America – the company reconstituted Enel North America, Inc. as a parent entity in 2019. In the same year, Enel became the official energy partner of Gillette Stadium.
In 2020, Enel X partnered with UMass Boston, to develop a 1 MW solar photovoltaic system, a 500 kW/2MWh lithium-ion battery storage system, and 11 Enel X JuiceBox electric vehicle (EV) smart charging stations on the campus. Also in 2020, Enel X delivered resources to the grid at more than 500 demand response events. With new EV smart charging solutions and more than 40 utility smart charging partners, it reached over 60,000 residential and commercial smart charging stations in North America. Furthermore, in 2020, the Cimarron Bend wind farm in Kansas was expanded by 199 MW, raising a total capacity of 599 MW. Enel Green Power also announced the start of construction of the Lily solar + storage project, which subsequently began operations in December 2021. Located east of Dallas, Texas, it is Enel Green Power's first hybrid project in North America integrating renewable energy with utility-scale battery storage, combining 181 MW of solar PV with 55MWdc of battery energy storage.
In 2022, Enel Group announced the launch of Enel X Way, its new global business line dedicated to smart electric vehicle infrastructure solutions. In North America, Enel X Way is headquartered in San Carlos, California, with the aim of supporting the demand for electric vehicles and smart EV charging infrastructures. In the same year, Enel X Way's home charging station, the JuiceBox, was named the "best EV charger overall" by CNET Roadshow. Moreover, Enel X Way and Tritium signed a global framework agreement and first contract in the U.S., with more than 250 fast charging stations ordered by Enel X Way for use in the U.S. Also, Enel Group launched Gridspertise in U.S. market: the company is dedicated to accelerating the digital transformation of power grids. In 2022, Enel North America launched its retail energy business to sell electricity directly to US businesses, backed by the output of Enel's renewable generation assets. In the same year, Enel announced plans to build a solar factory to produce solar modules and cells in the U.S., with initial planned production of 3 gigawatts—and ultimately as much as 6 gigawatts—of solar panels.
Operations and business areas
Enel North America provides businesses, utilities, municipalities, and other commercial energy users with energy solutions, including renewable power generation, demand response, distributed energy resources, electric vehicle charging, energy trading, advisory and consulting services. In the United States and Canada, it has operations through its renewables, advanced energy services, and Energy & Commodity Management divisions.
Enel North America's renewables business is specialized in the development, long-term owning and operation of renewable energy plants. In the U.S. & Canada, it operates 64 renewable energy power plants – including wind, solar, and geothermal power – for a total capacity of over 9.6 GW. It is present in 14 U.S. states and 1 Canadian province. It produced 18 TWh in 2021, enough energy to power 1.6 million households/year.
Enel North America's advanced energy services business is dedicated to the development of products and digital solutions for cities, homes, and industries. Enel X manages 4.7 GW of demand response capacity across utilities and businesses, with more than 70 behind-the-meter battery energy storage systems in operation or under contract. Though the Enel X division, Enel North America manages over $10.5 billion in customers’ annual energy spend for about 4,500 business customers, spanning more than 35,000 sites.
Enel North America's Energy & Commodity Management division acts as an interface with the wholesale energy markets. It manages the integrated gross energy margin and dispatches the local generation fleet. The division is active in import/export activities and manages more than 7.6 GW, including wind and solar power. It operates in all power ISO markets and in Canada, with its main traded products including power, gas, Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), and weather. The division also provides energy management services and tailor-made products (e.g., PPA) to third parties.
Presence in the United States and Canada Enel North America's EV charging unit served commercial and residential customers across the U.S. and Canada until October 2024, when it announced that it would end North American product support on Friday, October 11. The residential chargers will continue to work, but customers will lose features like app access to check charging status and history, and to schedule charging. Commercial chargers, however, "will lose functionality in the absence of software continuity". The company cited slow EV market growth and high interest rates as reasons for its exit. The Linux Foundation's LF Energy project used the incident to make the case for using vendor-agnostic open source code in EV charging infrastructure to prevent such stranded assets.
Just days before the end of Enel X server access, the EV charging community mobilized to discuss possible solutions. Various highly regarded YouTube EV channels (Transport Evolved, State of Charge) assembled panels of charging hardware and software experts to assess the situation and make plans, including contacting several state attorneys general. Consumer Reports, U.S. PIRG and charger owners submitted a petition to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) protesting the abrupt end of sales and support. An ad-hoc group called Juice Rescue launched a website to help gather and share information about the transition away from Enel X chargers. A day before the planned end date, Enel X announced that it would delay the shutdown deadline "for an extended period" and find a third party to support its user base.
Oklahoma
Enel North America started generating energy from wind sources in Oklahoma through Enel Green Power in 2012, with the first wind farm being Rocky Ridge. Since then, the company has built or started construction of 13 wind farms in Oklahoma, representing over 2 GW of operating capacity.
Its Origin wind farm – a 150-megawatt plant located near Hennepin, Oklahoma – started operating in September 2015. Origin has 75 Vestas wind turbines and can power about 55,000 homes. It was the third Enel North America project to start production in Oklahoma since 2012.
In March 2022, Enel North America commenced construction of the 300-MW Seven Cowboy wind park, located in the Washita and Kiowa counties, Oklahoma. It is Enel North America's 13th wind farm in Oklahoma and is expected to be running by the end of 2022. Seven Cowboy will consist of 107 turbines capable of producing more than 1.3 TWh of electricity annually, enough to power over 120,000 U.S. households per year.