Month: February 2024

Southern Company and Samsung SmartThings have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to collaborate on a number of innovative projects that explore the intersection of consumer energy management and smart-home automation.

This strategic relationship is designed to advance and unlock residential flexible load and grid benefits by providing customers with personalized, automated solutions. Among other goals, the collaboration is intended to demonstrate quantifiable reduction in energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

SmartThings is Samsung’s global connected living platform for smart homes, with users in more than 200 countries. The app allows users to control their connected devices in the home from a smart device and was certified by the EPA as the first commercial Smart Home Energy Management System (SHEMS).

Samsung is the market leader in refrigerators, televisions and display monitors in the United States, holding the largest market share. Some 71% of U.S. households currently own at least one Samsung device.

The engagement will encompass the following initiatives:

Creation of an Innovation laboratory and test site where testing can take place for integrations and demand response simulations prior to customer implementation.Design and implementation of a custom Southern Company user experience on SmartThings to help recruit, enroll and engage users during a Mississippi Power energy efficiency battery pilot scheduled for the first quarter of 2024. Participating customers will be able to view their usage data in a SmartThings app.SmartThings will support Mississippi Power’s Smart Neighborhood project with customer education and engagement, data and analytics.

Southern Company and Samsung SmartThings will continue to explore ways in which the two entities can work together across the larger Southern Company footprint.

“We are excited to engage with Samsung SmartThings,” said Hank Adams, Southern Company’s senior vice president of customer solutions. “By combining our energy expertise with Samsung’s smart home technology, we aim to deliver personalized, automated solutions that enhance the lives of our customers while advancing energy efficiency.”

“Mississippi Power’s pipeline of innovative projects, including our Smart Neighborhood and demand response initiatives, are the perfect place to begin this new collaboration,” added Mississippi Power Marketing and Sales Director Giff Ormes. “This collaboration will allow Mississippi Power and Southern Company to better understand how new technologies can help our customers manage their energy usage.”

“Here at SmartThings, sustainability is at the core of everything we do,” commented Mark Tekippe, vice president of product and growth. “We could not be more thrilled about this collaboration with Southern Company, and we look forward to being able to engage, educate and empower customers to take control of their home energy usage, save money, reduce carbon emissions and support a cleaner, more efficient power grid.”

Xavier Teal is a true leader, devoted to selfless service in every area of his life. His ability to see the bigger picture has led him to freely give his time, knowledge, and encouragement to those around him in his career and community. 

In high school, Teal was a Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) commander and later became a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. His experience in the Army as a system administrator for the Trojan intelligence network helped to shape him as a future project manager at CACI. 

“My time in the Army equipped me to always see tasks through to the end,” Teal said. “More often than not, others are depending on you to do your job right and in a timely manner. I kept this in mind as I transitioned into the civilian world and now encourage members of my team to do the same as they break new ground in their careers.”

After leaving the Army in 2009, Teal joined CACI, initially serving as a network administrator at the Trojan Network Control Center (TNCC) at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia. Today, he is CACI’s Air Force-Distributed Common Ground System (AF-DCGS) Management Center (DMC) Network Lead, leveraging his 20 years of network engineering expertise to ensure essential intelligence data continues to flow through DCGS. 

This $65 billion network system is the second largest Command and Control system in the U.S. Air Force and supports more than 6,000 warfighters at 27 sites. “Because of the work we do, the network is able to provide near-real time data that helps troops receive situational awareness and maintain their safety and security,” Teal said. 

His unfaltering dedication extends beyond Teal’s role at CACI. Teal is an active member of his community, the same community that has nurtured and supported him throughout his life. “My motivation for giving back stems from my parents,” he said. “Growing up, my parents offered our home as a safe haven for anyone need who needed it. I hope to keep that tradition alive in my own life.”

He fills his evenings and weekends with coaching duties for an age five and under soccer league and has consistently boosted team morale as the captain of a social kickball team that is made up of personnel from CACI and DMC. Teal also volunteers with #Lunchbag, a Hampton Roads organization, packing and distributing more than 750 lunches throughout the community each month.

Teal is described by friends and colleagues as a motivated problem solver and pillar of his community. This vast support led him to what he calls his greatest accomplishment as a CACI employee thus far, being selected as a 2024 Black Engineer of the Year awardee in the Outstanding Achievement category. 

“Xavier is a problem solver who sees challenges as opportunities for improvement,” said Todd Probert, CACI President of National Security and Innovative Solutions. “He views success as a group endeavor and empowers his team to be its very best, and he is motivated by the knowledge that when his team succeeds, our national security is stronger, and our troops are safer.” 

Since joining the company, Teal has felt a strong connection to the culture deeply woven into the fabric of CACI’s workforce. “I feel most connected to CACI’s devotion to character,” he said. “At CACI, we believe character and innovation go hand-in-hand. Our commitment to fostering this approachable culture fuels our progress and inspires us to aim higher.”

CACI is a collaborative team of diverse, talented, and highly skilled professionals. Explore how CACI embraces its richness of differences. 

ABOUT CACI

At CACI International Inc (NYSE: CACI), our 23,000 talented and dynamic employees are ever vigilant in delivering distinctive expertise and differentiated technology to meet our customers’ greatest challenges in national security and government modernization. We are a company of good character, relentless innovation, and long-standing excellence. Our culture drives our success and earns us recognition as a Fortune World’s Most Admired Company. CACI is a member of the Fortune 1000 Largest Companies, the Russell 1000 Index, and the S&P MidCap 400 Index. For more information, visit us at caci.com.

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Corporate Communications and Media:                                           
Lorraine Corcoran                                                              
Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications                  
(703) 434-4165, lorraine.corcoran@caci.com