5/13/08

PPM. Often referred to as Peter, Paul, and Mary, to help articulate the name. The second largest wind developer in the US. On May 1, the company changed its name to IBERDROLA RENEWABLES, so that we are now operating as one company worldwide. But aren’t we Community Energy?

The corporate merger history is a bit lengthy, but on April 23, 2007, PPM Energy joined the IBERDROLA family of companies through the acquisition of their parent company, Scottish Power. Just as Community Energy had been acquired in June of 2006 by Iberdrola, only on a much larger scale. Later in 2007, Iberdrola brought together its renewable projects worldwide and created IBERDROLA RENEWABLES, which is the world’s largest provider of wind power with more than 7,800 MW in operation.

The transition is understandably emotional and difficult, as the PPM family grew from 12 people in 2001 to a large family in Portland, Houston, Calgary, Salt Lake City, and dozens of project sites and home offices.

So you might ask, what’s going to change? The simple and truthful answer is nothing, except the name. The CEI logo tagline now reads “an Iberdrola Renewables Company”. Our parent company has unified the different acquisitions under one name, with a bright, fresh look. We are still the same great people supplying the same great products and services as before.

I joined CEI in 2001, when we had no association with PPM or Iberdrola, or anyone else for that matter. We were five people then, including me. Four of those five people are still with this company today, either with CEI or some other IBERDROLA RENEWABLES capacity. Perhaps most importantly in a time of transition is that most of the talented, committed people who founded and launched the company are still working hard at our mission, to ignite the demand and build the supply of emission-free energy.