Energy Efficiency

Energy Storage Coming Online in the US from Coast-to-Coast

New Hampshire — Energy storage announcements this week show that the new technology is continuing to make gains from coast to coast as companies work to cuts electricity costs and help stabilize the grid.

In New York, builder of luxury homes, Glenwood will begin installation this month on what will be 1 MW of distributed energy storage systems.  The energy storage systems will be operational for the summer peak load season and will support the Indian Point Demand Management Program that Con Ed and NYSERDA are offering to commercial customers. The program seeks to achieve 125 MW of permanent peak-coincident electric load reductions by June 1, 2016 with 100 MW from demand management. The other 25 MW are to come from combined heat and power. The ConEd incentive is $2,100 per kW of battery storage and projects that achieve a peak reduction of 500 kW or more can also earn additional bonus incentives.

“We all need to work together to manage our electric grid and intelligently manage load growth in NYC, and this pioneering technology offers a viable solution” said Josh London, VP of Management for Glenwood.

Glenwood installed its first energy storage system two years ago at its Barclay Tower property (image, left).  That system, pictured right,has been delivering above planned economic returns to the building, according to a Demand Energy press release. 

Glenwood is now moving forward with this larger energy storage system and has contracted with industrial battery maker EnerSys and Demand Energy to deliver, install and operate these assets. The deployment of an aggregated 1 MW of energy storage across Glenwood’s properties represents the first example of a networked distributed energy storage portfolio in NYC that is capable of managing individual building loads in real-time or responding as an aggregated asset to a critical power event called by ConEd or NYISO, said the companies.

New York State, with the leadership of Governor Cuomo and the Public Service Commission, is moving forward with the development of a new energy market. Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) represents a bold approach to bringing utility regulation and management of the grid into the 21st century.  The focus of the initiative is on the distribution side of the grid where the goal is to manage overall demand. This dynamic new market of incentives and tariffs will encourage customers to deploy assets like energy storage to help align system/network peaks with building load reductions and improve the overall efficiency of the grid.

In related news from the other side of the country, Ideal Power said that it has signed a stragtegic supplier agreement with Green Charge Networks and received a multi-unit order for its 30-kW battery converter. The units will be used at several California schools in the Mountain View and Tulare districts.

The installations will help the schools reduce peak demand charges and the companies said that the projected cumulative energy savings are greater than $1.5 million over the contract term.

“We are seeing significant traction in product orders for energy storage systems,” said Dan Brdar, CEO, President and Chairman of Ideal Power. The company’s 30-kW battery converter provides electrical isolation and eliminates the need for a transformer, making it smaller, lighter and more cost effective than traditional power converters, the company said. 

Lead image: Aerial View of Manhattan. Credit: Shutterstock.

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