Oct 19 2015
For the second year in a row Green Charge Networks, the largest provider of commercial energy storage in the US, won the 2015 Energy Storage North America (ESNA) Innovation Award.
The award announced Wednesday evening was given to Green Charge for their 20MWh California Schools and Utility Trust program. Green Charge is working with a California statewide network of K-12 schools and school districts, community colleges, state universities and utilities to reduce energy costs and streamline utility programs through a single point of contact. The total estimated savings is $6.75M to all ten schools/districts. ESNA is the largest and most influential gathering of policy, technology and market leaders in energy storage.
“Recognition by our colleagues at ESNA for vision, leadership and achievements is significant,” said Vic Shao CEO at Green Charge. “Our partnership with California schools and utilities showcases new business opportunities by collaborating across both sides of the meter and demonstrates how energy storage can increase our customers’ energy savings by participating in utility programs.”
Green Charge began installations in 2014, with California State University, Fullerton, Butte Community College, and Peralta Community College District. Schools have a load profile well-suited to the demand response needs of the utilities. With the rise in solar, utilities struggle in the afternoon and evening hours to ramp-up capacity. School buildings peak around lunchtime, with loads dropping after school hours - when the distribution grid is in need. In summertime when the distribution grid sees its peak, schools are not in session and the storage systems are fully available. Green Charge has provided schools with tremendous value and many of them are expanding/upsizing their deployments. GCN is collaborating with utilities on demand response programs to maximize utilization and efficiencies. The 20 MWh Program is a scalable economic model serving the needs for both sides of the meter.
The Oak Park district in Ventura County recently installed its energy storage system and plans on integrating with an education program to increase awareness of renewable energy. Mountain View Los Altos school district has installed 1.08 MWh of energy storage at two campuses. Construction and installation of additional projects in Southern California are currently taking place and expected to go live in 2016.
Green Charge’s California schools & Utilities Trust Program is a model for the future of grid scale energy storage deployments. Green Charge is providing a network of installations that is the first in the world to collaborate across both sides of the meter providing demand charge reduction at no cost to the host customer and with no operational impact. Green Charge is working to establish the effectiveness and reliability of behind-the-meter energy storage systems for demand response and to develop, implement, and prove the capabilities of customer-sited storage for grid services. All schools have the ability to respond to the utilities’ DR calls providing localized and grid-wide benefits during emergency grid conditions.