Sempra Energy Unit PXiSE, Mitsui Sign Equity Investment Agreement For Advanced Smart Grid Control Platform

PXiSE Energy Solutions, LLC, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) today announced it has signed an equity investment agreement with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. for the development and sales of PXiSE’s high-speed patented software designed to benefit utilities, grid operators, power generators and commercial customers.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mitsui has acquired up to a 20-percent equity stake in PXiSE Energy Solutions and will collaborate in the sales and marketing activities internationally through the company’s global network.

“We are pleased to partner with Mitsui as an equity investor in PXiSE Energy Solutions,” said Dennis V. Arriola, chief strategy officer and executive vice president for external affairs and South America for Sempra Energy. “PXiSE's innovative technology can help improve the reliability, stability and efficiency of electric transmission and distribution systems, better balancing renewable and conventional resources.”

PXiSE’s software platform – advanced grid control technology – can help optimize and operate a mix of energy resources at speeds of up to 60 times per second to achieve increased reliability at a lower cost than traditional grid control systems.  PXiSE was awarded a patent last month by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its propriety grid control system.

“Our patented technology and innovative software solution, along with the significant technology development contributions from OSIsoft, should help transform electric grids to be smarter and more responsive to customers’ needs,” said Patrick Lee, president of PXiSE Energy Solutions.  “We look forward to working with Mitsui, a well respected global company, to expand the deployment of PXiSE.”

“We are confident PXiSE’s technology accelerates the digital transformation in the energy and power industry where Mitsui has many assets and access to partners,” said Makoto Serino, general manager of DT Business Development Div. for Mitsui & Co., Ltd. “Based on our great relationship with Sempra Energy established through our liquefied natural gas investments, we will further support PXiSE’s growth through our expertise as a partner and shareholder of OSIsoft, which provides one of the key technologies of PXiSE’s advanced grid control technology.”

The PXiSE advanced grid control platform runs on a standard Microsoft Windows platform and uses an imbedded OSIsoft software and synchro-phasor data to enhance, analyze and respond to grid data from numerous power resources. The continuous higher-resolution visibility and artificial intelligence balances a mix of renewable energy, storage and traditional generation on the electrical grid.

The PXiSE software application currently is in use at Sempra Renewables’ Auwahi Wind and Great Valley Solar facilities in Hawaii and Northern California, respectively; at Sempra Energy’s headquarters in San Diego; and at a winery in Sonoma County, Calif. To find out more, visit www.pxise.com.

PXiSE Energy Solutions is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, a Fortune 500 energy services holding company with 2017 revenues of more than $11 billion. Sempra Energy is the utility holding company with the largest U.S. customer base. The Sempra Energy companies' approximately 20,000 employees serve more than 40 million consumers worldwide.

Mitsui & Co., Ltd. is one of the world’s most diversified and comprehensive trading, investment and service enterprises. Headquartered in Tokyo, Mitsui maintains a global network of 137 offices in 66 countries and regions, and has 472 subsidiaries and associated companies worldwide. (As of Apr. 1, 2018) Visit www.mitsui.com to learn more.

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cybersecurity threats to the energy grid, storage and pipeline infrastructure, the information and systems used to operate our businesses and the confidentiality of our proprietary information and the personal information of our customers and employees; our ability to successfully execute our plan to divest certain non-utility assets within the anticipated timeframe, if at all, or that such plan may not yield the anticipated benefits; actions of activist shareholders, which could impact the market price of our common stock, preferred stock and other securities and disrupt our operations as a result of, among other things, requiring significant time and attention by management and our board of directors; capital markets and economic conditions, including the availability of credit and the liquidity of our investments; fluctuations in inflation, interest and currency exchange rates and our ability to effectively hedge the risk of such fluctuations; the impact of recent federal tax reform and uncertainty as to how it may be applied, and our ability to mitigate adverse impacts; actions by credit rating agencies to downgrade our credit ratings or those of our subsidiaries or to place those ratings on negative outlook and our ability to borrow at favorable interest rates; changes in foreign and domestic trade policies and laws, including border tariffs, and revisions to international trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, that make us less competitive or impair our ability to resolve trade disputes; the ability to win competitively bid infrastructure projects against a number of strong and aggressive competitors; expropriation of assets by foreign governments and title and other property disputes; the impact on reliability of San Diego Gas & Electric Company's (SDG&E) electric transmission and distribution system due to increased amount and variability of power supply from renewable energy sources; the impact on competitive customer rates due to the growth in distributed and local power generation and the corresponding decrease in demand for power delivered through SDG&E's electric transmission and distribution system and from possible departing retail load resulting from customers transferring to Direct Access and Community Choice Aggregation or other forms of distributed and local power generation, and the potential risk of nonrecovery for stranded assets and contractual obligations; the ability to realize the anticipated benefits from our investment in Oncor Electric Delivery Holdings Company LLC (Oncor Holdings); Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC's (Oncor) ability to eliminate or reduce its quarterly dividends due to regulatory capital requirements, certain reductions in its senior secured credit rating, or the determination by Oncor's independent directors or a minority member director to retain such amounts to meet future requirements; and other uncertainties, some of which may be difficult to predict and are beyond our control.

These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the reports that Sempra Energy has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are available through the EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forecasts or projections or other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Sempra South American Utilities, Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra LNG & Midstream, Sempra Renewables, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas Utility, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC (Oncor) and Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.B. de C.V. (IEnova) are not the same companies as the California utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) or Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), and Sempra South American Utilities, Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra LNG & Midstream, Sempra Renewables, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas Utility, Oncor and IEnova are not regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission.