Interview with Lev Buslovich - Apadana Energy
In today’s interview, we have Lev Buslovich, President of Apadana Energy.
| Can you introduce yourself and maybe tell us a little bit about yourself and the company?
I was born in Lithuania and lived in Leningrad, Russia. I immigrated to the US at 9 years old from the Soviet Union through Italy, where we lived in a refugee camp for 9 months. I received my BA from Colgate University, while playing Division I soccer, and my MBA in Marketing from The Carlson School, University of Minnesota. I moved from Product Management roles at ConAgra and GE to Six Sigma process improvement at GE, when they were first rolling it out. Six Sigma opened my eyes to the world of Operations and Strategy. From there, I ran large operations teams at GE and started the Lean Six Sigma programs at Target and Carlson Companies as Director of Strategy and Improvement. End of 2007, a partner and I founded Noble Conservation Solutions, an energy efficiency company with a focus on lighting, controls and HVAC projects. We grew the company from start-up to $10M within 10 years.
Prior to joining Apadana, I served as COO for a national $200M specialty construction company (H2i) with a focus on medical laboratories, sports facilities and gym spaces. Three years ago, I joined Apadana to run their Apadana Energy division, which has become its largest division by revenue and headcount. As President of Apadana Energy, we have grown revenue 9x. Apadana enables its customers to save money by designing and installing solar PV systems, lighting efficiency upgrades, EV charging solutions, battery storage, HVAC, geothermal, waste-to-energy biogas production, and other engineered electrical services. The long-term goal is to lower use and add production to approach Net Zero energy consumption.
Discover your solar saving potential
The Company’s commitment to engineering has set it apart from others offering similar products and services. That’s because we install what we design, which lets us use unique products and/or approaches that improve efficiency and lower out-of-pocket costs. Our commitment to each and every customer, large and small. This commitment is reflected as a 7-time winner of Xcel Energy Efficiency Partner Award and reflected as #1 Ranked solar company by State of Minnesota Office of Procurement.
| Is Apadana Energy your company?
No. Apadana was founded in 2013 by two electrical and mechanical engineers with a commitment to energy conservation, renewable energy generation solutions and environmental benefits. Ahmad Kian is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s in management of technology. Mr. Kian has over 30 years of Engineering, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Operations leadership experience with Fortune 500 companies such as Data-Card, Emerson Electric, and TTX. Ehssan Taghizadeh is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in Microelectronics and Microprocessor Chip Design. Mr. Taghizadeh also holds the Master Electrical license for the company. Before founding Apadana, he held progressive roles in technology, design, engineering management, and served as CEO at Comtrol Corporation, Digitiliti, and Heilux.
| Can you talk a bit about the company? How was it in its early days, how it grew to where it is right now?
Apadana was started literally in the basement of one of the owners. Because both owners had extensive Supply Chain expertise, they started manufacturing and importing lighting products. Their main prowess and differentiation were in designing and installing complex customized electrical solutions in commercial settings, including LED lighting, controls, security, signage and service upgrades. The company quickly grew beyond the initial family and friends and original product offering. In 2017, Apadana installed their first solar project. In 2018, Apadana created an electrical product distribution business, ATEK, that is 1 of 3 US companies certified as Disabled Veteran Owned Business. In 2019, Apadana purchased Clark Technology, a wastewater treatment and waste-to-energy provider. Since then, Apadana also incubated an E-commerce retailer (Agora), created Apadana Engineering, a utility scale electrical engineering firm, and established Apadana Construction to manage and maintain building facilities.
| Were you a part of the solar world before entering this company, or is this something you just started out?
Noble Conservation Solutions installed a few solar PV projects. Solar was not its prime focus nor expertise. However, my knowledge of construction, engineered electrical solutions, commercial real-estate industry and the ability to manage and grow businesses in this industry made me ideally suited for this role.
| Can you tell me more about the services you provide? I see on your website, you listed Solar, EV charging, LED lighting, and Energy storage. Can you maybe talk us through each of these services?
Each service has many specific channels and solutions. Primary services include:
PV Solar – turn-key installation of commercial, residential, Community Solar Gardens, non-profit, government (Engineering, Procurement and Electrical Construction). Projects cover flat roof, pitched roof, farm ground-mount, Dual Axis Trackers, wall-mounted solar, etc.
Engineering – utility scale solar engineering
EV Charging – solutions include single family home, multi-family residential solutions such as EV PowerHub™ focused on underground parking, commercial, retail
Battery Storage solutions in commercial and residential locations
Lighting – LED retrofit projects in any commercial, government, non-profit and multi-family residential setting
Electrical products distributor (ATEK) – focus on supplying electricians and advantage on all Federal bids
| What about your team? Do you have full-time employees or work with contractors?
We have approximately 40 full time employees in Apadana Energy with another dozen contract employees. The other businesses include another 30 employees. The sales team resides under Apadana Energy and sells all products and services of sister divisions.
| Do you have a lot of competition over there?
Overall, our competitor is probably somebody like Siemens or Mortenson, with lots of different divisions in these spaces. However, each product/service faces its own competitive landscape. In Commercial solar alone, we have 8 main local competitors just in this market and another half dozen national players. In EV Charging, the competition is completely different. There, we compete with many small local installers and a dozen national charger manufacturers. Same thing happens in lighting. There are national players such as manufacturers or O&M companies as well as local electricians. Interestingly, the various lighting retrofit companies that we were competing with just a few years ago closed their doors or morphed into other services. Our preferred client is someone who understands the efficiencies and cost savings of doing business with a single company, like Apadana, which provides broad range of solutions to all their electrical energy needs and opportunities.
| We can say you’ve been in the business for a long time, right?
I was with large corporations since 1996. I started my company in this industry in 2007. You can say I have been in energy and sustainability for 17 years, which is far longer than most energy efficiency and renewables companies have been in business.
| Can you maybe tell us a little about the changes you’ve witnessed through these years? Changes that may have made your business (and the installation process) easier, harder, etc.?
- All the players are getting better, more organized and more sophisticated than 15 years ago. As the industry grows, companies learn, people cross-pollinate businesses, and everyone gets better at what they do.
- Many of these industries do NOT have high barriers to entry. To sell solar requires a phone and some sense of what you are talking about. All aspects of selling, engineering and installing solar can be outsources. So, there is an industry and army of charlatans. There are many players who exaggerate the savings or production and convince the uneducated customer to go with their recommendation. These people and companies are good at selling, but don’t have any technical knowledge of what is accurate or best for the customer. In some cases, they may actually understand how to manipulate the cash flows and presentations to show a better return. I prefer this not to be true, but I see it all the time. In many cases, the subcontractor electricians are left to figure out how to install what was sold. By the time the customer figures out that their system actually produces or cost, years may pass. Its tough to run a fact-based data-driven business when there are always players who are either not savvy and often underbid because they miss certain things and others who are cynical and don’t play straight.
| While we’re on the subject of money… do people still think they have to be super rich to be able to afford a solar system?
Not at all. The price of solar, as other products no longer in the introduction cycle, has gone down dramatically ($/watt) in the last 10 years and even in the last 3. There are also many more financing sources for businesses and families. Here in Minnesota, a non-profit organization will finance all home solar projects for 6% at 20 years. That is without any dealer fees. Unfortunately, I see too many people being deceived to take on loans with +30% dealer fees on top of a 4%-6% interest rate. It’s downright wrong. All a family needs to have is a viable roof or ground and plan to be in their home for a long-enough period of time. A typical ROI for a company is 4-7 years and 8-12 years for a home. You don’t even have to have money for down payment. Many facilities will provide full funding.
| What are your thoughts on the rest of the United States, about solar energy in general? And also, what are some of its major challenge?
For residential solar, there seems to be a bad taste in many mature markets such as California, Florida, Arizona and Texas. In other places like the Midwest, residential solar ads are only increasing, and the market penetration is quite low. For commercial solar, its generally the same by geography, but is highly driven by utility and government incentives. In Minnesota, on the west bank of the St Croix River, which separates Minnesota from Wisconsin, Xcel Energy allows Community Solar Gardens (CSG) of up to 5MW. The same utility across the river does not allow any size CSG, because the Wisconsin legislature has not passed legislation to force Xcel Energy in their state to do the same. Unfortunately, there is a political aspect to this also.
| What about the future of your company? Do you have any plans? Are you thinking about it at the moment?
I am always thinking ahead. To maintain our payroll and keep everyone employed, which is a big value of our ownership (to provide good paying jobs), we have to keep feeding the machine. We are continuously challenged to grow, which is difficult year to year in any industry. I am always thinking about new channels, new partnerships and strategic moves. Its always fun when a company is growing. I have been here before many times. The key is to keep this sustainable. To do that, you have to align strategy with core competence, right people, right tools, documented processes and disciplined execution at every level. A business will always have bottlenecks at different locations and times. Its like playing whack-amole. You have to know your processes, metrics and what buttons to push at what time to smooth out the workflow. That is what I know. People call me an integrator, because I can integrate and align these various functions, people, and processes into a smooth operation. All my work experiences, as well as coaching competitive soccer for 40+ years, have taught me how to evaluate and manage businesses, teams, and organizations. I think my multi-functional work experiences in advertising, marketing, lean six sigma, strategy, operations, team management, IT project management, sales, finance, etc., made me a much better leader than if I had only one functional role. Fortunately, I have had lots of success in my work results and plan to continue to achieve ever higher milestones.