AES Corporation

20th century

The company was founded on January 28, 1981, as Applied Energy Services[4] by Roger Sant and Dennis Bakke, two appointees of the Federal Energy Administration under president Richard Nixon. The company was initially a consulting firm; it became AES Corporation, which went public in 1991. Sant was chairman, CEO, and president and Bakke was executive vice president until assuming the position of president in 1987. Bakke later became the company's CEO in 1994, serving for eight years until his resignation in 2002 in the midst of a liquidity crisis that followed the collapse of the energy giant Enron.[5][6] The company's efforts to modernize the electricity grid in Tbilisi, Georgia, through its acquisition of Telasi, were documented in the feature documentary Power Trip, directed by Paul Devlin.[7][8]

21st century

Sant remained as executive chairman until 2003 and as a member of the board until 2006. Paul Hanrahan was appointed president and CEO and remained for ten years, overseeing the stabilization of the company. Until the early 2000s, the company followed self-management, delegating much responsibility to ordinary employees.[9] In 2012, Hanrahan resigned his position as president and CEO of the company, and he was succeeded by Andres Gluski. As CEO, Gluski has implemented a strategy of reducing the number of countries in which AES does business, from 28 to 16, for the purpose of consolidating operations and reducing costs. Additionally, he began a program of reducing the company's total carbon emission intensity.

Bakke and Sant oversaw much of AES's initial global expansion, building power plants in 29 countries and expanding its staff from 1,400 to 32,000 employees, and also instilled a system of decentralized management that emphasized social responsibility above profit. In recent years, AES has signaled a commitment to providing its consumers and clients with renewable forms of energy, and its operations construction and provision of solar and wind-based energy storage systems.

AES acquired the assets of Indianapolis Power & Light (also known as IPL or IPALCO) in 2000.[10] In February 2021, Indianapolis Power & Light rebranded as AES Indiana.[11]

Fluence

Launched during January 2018, Fluence is a joint venture between AES Energy Storage and Siemens that is focused on the development of, and expansion of energy storage technologies and services. Chaired by former AES vice-president for energy storage platforms Stephen Coughlin, and headquartered in Washington D.C., Fluence aims to implement AES's extensive research into the potential of lithium-ion powered energy sources by relying upon Siemens' expansive global presence in the industrial sector; for the purpose of addressing the rapidly rising demand for clean energy technologies.[18] Fluence has been deployed in 16 countries, with major projects including the following:[19]

• 1) The creation of a new 40-megawatt storage facility on behalf of San Diego Gas & Electric's new 40 MW storage facility.[20]

Properties and subsidiaries in North America

• AES Ohio, branding for DPL Inc. – Dayton Power and Light Company
• AES Indiana, formerly IPL – Indianapolis Power & Light Company
• Premier Power
• AES Energy Storage.[32][33] AES Energy Storage has provided some of the largest battery storage power station in the world.[34]