Wake Forest, N.C.-based energy management company PowerSecure International (Nasdaq: POWR) announced that it signed a $16 million contract with a utility to provide standby power and distributed generation.

The company said the seven-year contract with the unnamed utility is its largest ever recurring revenue agreement.

PowerSecure expects the new distributed generation assets to be in place by the middle of this year.

The news comes on the heels of the company's announcement that it plans to sell its Metretek unit, as part of a previously disclosed review of strategic alternatives for its non-core businesses.

"We are creating three-way partnerships with utilities and customers to deliver energy with a strong ROI, maximum dependability, and the most sophisticated and capable monitoring systems available," said Sidney Hinton, CEO of PowerSecure.

"These new recurring revenue contracts provide innovative ways for our customers to manage their energy needs, and enable us to complement our project-based revenue business with growing recurring revenue
streams."

The company said the deal increases its recurring revenue base by an additional 50 percent, on top of a 50 percent increase from new recurring revenue contracts announced in early November.

Also in November, the company hired Stephens Inc. as a financial adviser to look at its non-core assets.

PowerSecure said it hasn't made a deal for the Metretek unit yet, but said it's likely that under current market conditions the sale price will be less than the carrying value of the unit's assets, which is approximately $4 million.

Metretek, which primarily operates in Florida, makes automatic meter reading systems.